


Placing the Blame

by IHealRages



Series: The (Real) Cursed Child [2]
Category: Harry Potter - Fandom, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: 2nd Year fanfic, Asshole Lucius, Based-Off-Books, Book 2: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Good Draco, Other Characters - Freeform, Ravenclaw Draco, References to Starkid Musicals, Time Travel, will add more tags as I think of them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-08
Updated: 2017-12-29
Packaged: 2018-10-16 07:44:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 53,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10566771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IHealRages/pseuds/IHealRages
Summary: Please read Nice is Different than Good firstDraco Malfoy is an accomplished potions master when he finds himself back in time a week before the start of Hogwarts.-Now in his second year of Hogwarts, Draco is still trying to keep the future he knows the same, but his life is about to get a lot harder due to the appearance of the Chamber of Secrets monster. But who is the real monster here?This is the 2nd fanfiction of my series, please, please, please, read the first fanfiction first, or you will not understand what is going on.





	1. Diagon Alley

**Author's Note:**

> Read the first fanfiction of the series first!!!   
> I swear you will not understand what is happening at all if you don't!!!
> 
> <3 I love you all <3 If you've already read First Year then thank you for waiting <3 <3

**Chapter 1**

 

Draco sat in a comfortable old armchair in one of the many living spaces of Malfoy Manor.

In reality, it was a good day, the curtains and windows were open letting a soft summer breeze in, and despite the summer heat there was a no-heat spelled fire lit in the fireplace filling the room with a soft orange light. And best of all, he had a new book on potions that he was happily pondering through.

However, that was as good as the day got, because for the fourth time that morning, his parents were pacing the room having a loud argument. About him.

He rolled his eyes.

To be honest, the past month his parents had quarrelled non-stop, it was an impractical war of pettiness from his father versus the cool logic of his mother. Needless to say, his mother had won every argument so far.

He did his best to ignore them. After all they were talking about him as if he wasn’t there anyway. He twiddled his bookmark between his fingers absentmindedly and carried on reading his book.

“I don’t care what his grades are! A Ravenclaw is not suitable to uphold the family name.” His father said in the voice he used when he was being too ‘noble’ to shout.

“He isn’t going to Durmstrang! I went to Hogwarts, you went to Hogwarts, it is a family custom and we are not changing that because you can’t accept that your son is more smart than ambitious” Narcissa spoke back in a firm, not-taking-this-shit voice.

Draco found it incredibly ironic that all throughout Hogwarts, (the first time), he could remember his father telling him he needed to have the best grades possible, be better than the muggleborn girl, be better than your classmates, study more. On and on, his father had ranted and complained, and Draco really had done his best to comply.

And yet, now that he was best in the year, he wasn’t good enough for his father’s expectations. Despite his almost perfect grades he was a failure.

Simply because he was a Ravenclaw.

_‘I guess there was no way to win to start with’_ , Draco mused. There was a time Draco would have done anything to keep his father happy, but he realised now that nothing he could have done would have helped.

No matter how hard he tried to please his father. It seemed that he would always find something new to be angry about.

Therefore, now that he was thrown back into his father’s presence after so many decades without him. He could not really care less about anything Lucius had to say about what he did at Hogwarts.

“Ambition is what being a Malfoy is all about!” His father continued to rant and spit. “He could at least use those brains to become an important figure in the Ministry! Now I hear all he cares about is potions! I will be having words with Severus about this!” His father complained loudly.

Draco calmly flipped a page in his advanced potions book, and if he ‘accidentally’ made sure his father got a full view of the front cover with the large gold letters that read ‘potions’ across the top then... well it’s not like it was planned or anything.

His father shot him a death glare. Draco nonchalantly flipped another page.

“Not to mention, Draco doesn’t even care for his appearance anymore! He looks like a commoner, it’s disgusting. But even if I could get over that, the company he keeps at school?!? I’ve heard all about it from other families. It’s shameful. He is a disgrace!” Lucius growled, somewhere in the argument he had begun pacing the room, and he wasn’t showing any signs of stopping.

‘ _Now, now,’_ Draco thought to himself, _‘I look pretty good as a commoner.’_

Draco knew he wasn’t particularly bad looking... Well he was certainly good looking by most people’s standards. And he always used to care about his appearance a lot, even after Hogwarts.

But as a 12-year-old, he thought he looked average, his hair was getting slightly longer which was why Lucius was complaining about it, he was average height… well for his bodies age anyway, and his eyes were grey but they were probably the only part of him that didn’t look like a regular 12-year-old.

Besides, he still cared about his appearance, he just thought he looked better this way… he spent too many years standing over cauldrons and trying not to blow himself up in experiments to think about looking absolutely perfect anyway.

Perhaps if he didn’t constantly forget that he didn’t look like a 42-year-old anymore, he would care more about his looks. Maybe he should try and find something other than potions to be interested in this time…

Anyway, ever since he’d come back in time he had avoided mirrors because he was too use to seeing the scars marring his body and the dark mark taking up his forearm… he found that after staring at his young, non-scarred self for too long he began to get freaked out a little. While in Hogwarts it was easy to avoid mirrors if you wanted to. But the manor was just full of them

“He could at least talk to his old friends in Slytherin house and show the pride of the Malfoy name in public” Lucius continued.

Now. This particular argument had been ongoing all summer. Lucius wanted him moved to Slytherin House or to at least stop being friends with other houses.

Draco tended to ignore him.

He could see the frustration on his mother’s face, evidently, she was tired of this argument, but Lucius kept bringing it up whenever Draco was in the room.

“The hat put me in Ravenclaw, so I will be friends with other Ravenclaws,” Draco said.

Lucius whirled around on him violently as if he forgot he was there. Draco raised an eyebrow and continued reading.

“Ravenclaw” his father spat and started pouring himself some scotch.

_Oh great, I hoped he wouldn’t get drunk today_ ,’ Draco thought. ‘ _Now this argument will never end’_. Over the summer his father had had a swift increase in alcohol consumption. Other than that, the man had spent a lot of time brooding in his study and not telling anyone why.

He did find it quite hilarious, that he could make his father alcoholic just by staying in the library reading all day… well he was also studying how to become an animagus but his father doesn’t need to know about that.

He still had a lingering worry that his father was up to something dangerous, but considering he couldn’t remember his father getting involved with anything bad until Voldemort came back properly, he left it alone.

Even if he was up to something, Draco didn’t know what he could do about it. _‘I may not like him but_ _he is still my father’_ he thought. Although... he wasn’t sure what emotion he felt towards the man, he didn’t want him to rot in Azkaban… again. Or get killed… but he didn’t like him either... the best thing to do was to just stay away from him and try not to get shouted at too much.

Part of him wanted to believe that Lucius wasn’t as horrible as he remembered him being, that maybe he got dragged into the wrong side of the war rather than choosing to be on the bad side. But then he figured he was just kidding himself. His father was pretty damn evil when he wanted to be.

A sudden hooting sound echoed through the halls breaking his train of thought, and a Hogwarts owl swooped in, dropping something onto Draco’s lap, it was his school letter.

The first page was a book list for the year, it read;

Second-year students will require:  
The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2 by Miranda Goshawk  
Break with a Banshee by Gilderoy Lockhart  
Gadding with Ghouls by Gilderoy Lockhart  
Holidays with Hags by Gilderoy Lockhart  
Travels with Trolls by Gilderoy Lockhart  
Voyages with Vampires by Gilderoy Lockhart  
Wanderings with Werewolves by Gilderoy Lockhart  
Year with the Yeti by Gilderoy Lockhart

‘ _Oh, Merlin not this guy’_ Draco thought, after second year Lockhart was outed as a fraud and put in St Mungo’s hospital for a memory charm gone wrong. He could remember seeing him one time when he had to visit St Mungo’s to deliver a batch of pain reduction potions. The guy would not stop referring himself as The Mouse Prince the entire time. Draco did NOT want to put up with this bullshit for a year.

His mother glanced over and smiled brightly, “Ah, Gilderoy Lockhart, I heard he is your Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher this year, I’m sure he will have a lot to teach you” she said. Draco highly doubted that, the exam questions were going to be ‘what is Gilderoy Lockhart's favourite colour.’ In fact, there was a high chance he was going to fail this class.  

“Draco!” his father said suddenly. Draco finished the sentence he was reading before looking up. His father was going red again. “On Wednesday, we are going into Diagon Alley for your school things,” he spoke through clenched teeth.

Draco nodded obediently and his father swept from the room.

Yes, soon he would be back at Hogwarts. He’d really missed it over the summer. It was comforting and memorable, he could walk around the halls and think about all the days he spent there as a student… well actually he got to re-live all the days as a student.

The biggest perk was that Hogwarts gave him freedom from his family. He loved his mother but it was a lot harder than he thought to act like a Malfoy. There were regular banquets and parties that were full of aristocrats and ministry workers. He had a hard time trying to act like he was interested.

After the war, he had attended a few formal parties’, but things were really a lot slower, people cared less about being formal and more about rebuilding the wizarding world. After all, a shit ton of pureblood wizards were being arrested for being involved with Voldemort at the time.

Staying under the social radar was a lot better than throwing parties and risking being remembered as a Death Eater. So, over the past 25 or so years he had forgotten how you were supposed to act, talk and stand to present yourself as a ‘pureblood’ to others.  

It was exhausting.

Of course, the downside of Hogwarts this year, from what he could remember, would be the thing going around attacking everyone. As he was in fact a ‘pureblood’ he assumed he would be safe, after all he was last time. But other students wouldn’t be so lucky.

Over the next few days he spent his time avoiding his father and walking around the Malfoy library, he was trying to find a book on what could petrify a person. But he didn’t have any luck, the Malfoy library was good for dark magic spells but not much else.

‘ _I’m sure the golden trio will work it out like last time’_ he thought. Leaving everything to them seemed to be the best plan for the next few... years. Although it was annoying that no one ever told him what really happened in 2nd year, there were probably rumours before, but his memories were pretty vague… it was hard trying to remember things that happened so many years ago.

It would help a lot if he knew what was going to happen to help prevent it.

He supposed he couldn’t expect himself to remember every little detail, first year had stuck out a lot more in his mind than 2nd. In fact, the only other year he remembered vividly was sixth… and that wasn’t a good year for him.

-

Wednesday morning, he followed his father through the floo network.

To be honest, it was a surprise to be taken to Diagon Alley by him and not his mother considering all the disappointed looks he had received from his father lately. He decided against asking why.

They wandered down the busy street, Diagon Alley was bustling as usual, it was the last week before term started so Draco was glad to see quite a few Hogwarts students around buying their books… He hoped he would see the golden trio, he slowed his pace to look around more, the Gryffindors, Seamus and Dean were staring through the broom shop window at a new broomstick. And he thought he saw a group of Hufflepuffs crowding Flourish and Blotts. He looked back to his father who was striding ahead towards Knockturn Alley with a sour look on his face.

There was no sign of Harry, he had sent him some letters over the summer but never received replies. He assumed it was because of the awful family he had to stay with. He asked his house elf Dobby to check on him but all Dobby said was ‘he was taking care of things.’ Draco wasn’t sure if he trusted the house elf but he had stopped trying to iron his hands every morning, so he left him to it.

“We are stopping here first” his father said leading them into Borgin and Burkes.

Draco walked around for a while without touching anything, Lucius would complain if he did.

He turned to the vanishing cabinet. That damned vanishing cabinet. He never wanted to go near one of those again, he could still remember the pain and agony of fixing the one at Hogwarts. He shuddered.

Suddenly the floo network activated and Draco was pushed to the ground by a soot covered Harry frickin’ Potter.

Harry was coughing loudly as soot and dust sprung up around them. His glasses hit the ground next to them.

“You are an idiot” Draco deadpanned.

“Draco?” Harry replied scrambling to get off of him. Harry eventually managed to stand up, although he was swaying a little.

Draco grabbed Harry’s glasses and stood up, brushing himself off. He used reparo before handing the glasses back to Harry who looked bruised and dizzy but still smiled at him.

“You look like you got stuffed up a chimney” Draco said bluntly.

“Something like that” Harry replied. “Where am I?” he asked.

“Knockturn Alley. Where were you supposed to go?” Draco asked, trust Harry to use floo powder wrong.

“Diagon Alley” replied Harry, who was now looking around curiously.

Draco glanced at his father who was talking to Borgin quietly by the shop counter.

“— There are rumours about a new Muggle Protection Act — no doubt that flea-bitten, Muggle-loving fool Arthur Weasley is behind it —”

Draco watched Harry clench his fists, he put a hand on Harry’s shoulder and shook his head at him.

_‘Please don’t say anything’_ he thought. The last thing he needed was his father exploding over something Harry said...

“— and as you see, some of these poisons might make it appear —” his father continued, Draco wasn’t sure if he had seen Harry or not...

“I understand, sir, of course,” said Mr. Borgin. “Let me see . . .”

They started to haggle and Draco pulled Harry away from the fireplace, to walk around the small shop,

“We’re going to Diagon Alley next,” he said quietly.

Harry grinned in reply. Then started poking at things in the shop that looked weird. Draco had to stop Harry from doing silly things like touching the hand of glory. Just because it looked like a hand didn’t mean he should try and grab it.

“Draco” his father suddenly sneered from the counter. ‘ _He must have finished his deals with Borgin’_ Draco sighed. He looked at Harry who was now trying to brush the soot off his robes.

“Perhaps we should take you and… this one… elsewhere” he said walking towards the door.

Draco pulled Harry along with him and whispered, “Don’t say anything rude,” to Harry while his father was out of earshot. Harry looked puzzled but took the hint.

They began walking towards Diagon Alley, Draco wished from the bottom of his heart that his father wouldn’t say anything at all.

“So... you and my son… talk to each other at school” Lucius said.

“Uhh, yes… sir” Harry said.

‘ _Fuck’_ Draco cursed, he hated life. ‘ _Someone up there is out to get me… I bet it’s Loki’_ he thought bitterly.

“Well I’m sure this year will be just as… pleasant as the last” Lucius said, Harry looked confused but was saved from answering as they got to Diagon Alley and a sudden mass of hair appeared out of the crowds of people.

“Harry! There you are! We were so worried!” Hermione said grabbing Harry by the arm.

Draco could see his father’s face scrunch up with disgust but thankfully he said nothing. Harry noticed it too and quickly thanked Lucius for taking him back to Diagon Alley, the two of them ran off with Hermione protesting that she didn’t get to greet Draco.

“You would ally yourselves with such… Filth” his father said once they were gone. Draco didn’t say anything, he would just make it worse.

He then spent the next 20 or so minutes being lead around by his father who seemed to be hell bent on ignoring him. Lucius eventually left him at Flourish and Blotts and went off to Gringotts because he, ‘had more important things to do.’

As he turned the corner he saw Harry, Hagrid and the Weasleys staring at Gilderoy Lockhart’s ‘magical me’ sign in front of the bookshop. Draco decided he hated life far too often for a 12-year-old.

He considered walking over to them until he heard Arthur Weasley saying something about his father… Right their families still hated each other. It would be best not to make anything more awkward between their families… Ron and the twins may like him, well, kind of, but their dad probably disliked his family more.

So, he waited patiently until they were inside, before walking over.

“Draco wait!” He heard behind him, Neville was running over with an armful of books.

“Careful” Draco said, just before Neville tripped over and dropped the books everywhere, Draco gave a brief laugh then helped him pick up all the books.

“You should learn to carry less” he said, Neville looked sheepish.

“My Grandmother got me all these books for Hogwarts but I don’t even know what half of them are” he said, they walked into the store and Neville immediately got in the queue to get even more books.

The shop was far too busy for him to get his own books… Not that he wanted to buy Lockhart’s books anyway, so Draco spent the next 5 minutes on the second floor watching Harry get pulled around and photographed by Lockhart. There was a sea of red haired Weasleys around him too.

Fred and George appeared behind him suddenly, “not plotting anything are we” they grinned.

Draco smiled, “not this time, I’ll let you know if I do though.”

The Weasley twins leant over the balcony and began a war of who could spit on their brother Percy with the best aim. He left them to it and walked down the stairs as Harry came through the crowd.

“Do you hate it?” Draco asked. “Not even being able to walk into a bookshop without making the front page?”

Harry turned to him grinning again, “I really wish they didn’t do stuff like that all the time… y’know, when I’m with the Dursleys I forget that I’m famous… and as much as I hate living with them, sometimes it’s nice not being treated like… the chosen one or something.”

“You are the chosen one” Draco muttered but Harry didn’t hear him as he scrambled to help carry books.

He could see Ginny Weasley staring at him from behind Harry, he smiled politely but she didn’t react. Fred and George came down the stairs behind him, and started teasing Harry on his soot covered robes that would be on the newspaper's front page photo.

Then Mr. Weasley came over with an armful of books, Ron was trailing behind him. “What are we all doing here? It’s too crowded, let’s go outside.” Mr. Weasley said.

“Well, well, well, Arthur Weasley.”

Father had walked through the entrance and put his hand on Draco’s shoulder... it was the closest contact he’d had with him the entire summer… not to mention the decades before that. Draco just raised an eyebrow at him.

_‘Ew’_ he thought _‘his hand is cold and clammy’_ he suppressed a shudder.  

“Lucius,” said Mr. Weasley, nodding coldly.

“Busy time at the Ministry, I hear,” said Lucius with a hint of smugness. “With all those extra raids . . . I hope they’re paying you overtime? Then again, judging from the shabby looks of your... Child-spawns... It would seem not. Dear me, what’s the use of being a disgrace to the name of wizard if they don’t even pay you well for it?”

Mr. Weasley flushed a darker red than Draco had ever seen Ron go.

“We have a very different idea of what disgraces the name of wizard, Malfoy,” Mr. Weasley said.

“Clearly,” said Lucius, he glanced over at Hermione’s parents and his lips formed into a sneer. “The company you keep, Weasley . . . and I thought your family could sink no lower—”

Suddenly Arthur Weasley fired himself at Lucius and they started fist-fighting in the middle of the bookshop.

Fred and George shouted, “Get him, Dad!” just as Mrs. Weasley started shrieking, “No, Arthur, no!”

It was hard to tell who was winning. But Mr. Weasley hit his father over the head with an encyclopaedia. And Draco really wanted to cheer on Mr. Weasley with the rest of them.

Unfortunately, in their fighting Lucius fell backwards into the crowd of people who stampeded backwards, knocking into poor Neville who dropped all his books again.

Hagrid appeared in the doorway, “Break it up, there, gents, break it up,” he said, pulling the two of them apart with ease. Mr. Weasley had a cut lip and there was a slight bruise forming on his father’s eye.

Lucius twisted himself out of Hagrid’s grip with an extreme amount of flair, he beckoned to Draco and swept from the shop.

He still hadn’t bought his books, Draco sighed and knelt down to help them pick up Neville’s books again before leaving, a few books had fallen off the shelves from people pushing and shoving and it was hard to tell which ones were Neville’s and which were from the shop, “is this one yours, Neville?” He asked holding up a small black book that was among the others. Neville didn’t look sure, but there wasn’t a price tag on it so it probably wasn’t a book from Flourish and Blotts.

“Uhh, yeah, probably... my Grandmother gave me a whole bunch of useless books so it must be” Neville said as Hermione helped him stack up his books in his arms again.

“You should carry less” Hermione scolded. Neville looked even more sheepish than before.

Draco stood up and looked at the door. “Ahh... I should follow before he gets more pissed...” he said running a hand through his hair. Well, he would just have to come back again tomorrow to buy his school books when his father was in a better mood. His mother would be happy to go with him, she had been eyeing a new dress in Madam Malkin’s anyway...

Mr. Weasley was staring at him with shock throughout the ordeal, but Draco ignored it and waved goodbye to Harry before leaving.

His father didn’t seem to notice the time it took him to catch up; he was walking around fuming. “You see what happens when you hang around blood traitors and those muggles!” he ranted.

“Yes father,” Draco said.

“I don’t want you anywhere near them for the rest of the year!” he continued.

“Yes father,” Draco repeated.

He was thankful to get back home.

 


	2. Hogwarts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fun fun

**Chapter 2**

Draco was mildly annoyed.

He’d looked all over the train and Harry and Ron were nowhere in sight.

Actually, ‘mildly’ was an understatement. Seriously, where the hell were they?!?

Not to mention, Hermione had run off with a bunch of girls who were giggling over Lockhart’s books.

He could already tell that this year was going to get on his nerves.

He sighed, walking up and down the train once last time before finding an empty compartment near the back.

The train started to move as he sat down.

“Guess it’s time to read” he muttered to himself, pulling out a few of his school books. To be fair, other than the extremely heavy and useless Lockhart books he had to read, the school books for this year were pretty good.

He was confident that this year would be at least more challenging than the last.

History of Magic would be harder now they were learning about magic in the 1800s, particularly because he couldn’t remember it so he actually needed to pay attention in class. And charms was kicking it up a notch now that they had covered the basics... although he still knew the entire curriculum for charms and likely transfiguration.

_‘I wonder if I could hypothetically ask Professor McGonagall about animagi_ ’ he mused.  

All in all, the basics of magic had been covered. He figured that next year he would have to start studying properly for his classes, instead of just falling asleep or reading books on potions during class.

He looked up at the sound of the compartment door opening. He hoped it was one of the golden trio but instead Crabbe and Goyle walked in.

“So, uhhh... Malfoy” said Crabbe.

Draco raised an eyebrow at them. Last year they hadn’t tried to talk to him unless Blaise and Pansy were around. And they weren’t trying to look threatening for once.

“We were thinking,” Crabbe said, he was shuffling his feet nervously.

“Dangerous,” Draco replied.

Goyle gave him a dopey grin that made Draco suppress a wince. Curse the fiendfyre flashbacks, it was thirty odd years ago and he was still finding it hard to look at him…

“We don’t really like following Zabini around anymore, he’s kinda big headed” Goyle said.

“Well, that’s an understatement” Draco huffed. Blaise was almost as big headed as he was back at Hogwarts… almost.

Crabbe scrunched his face up as if he didn’t understand the meaning of the word.

“Anyway, we were wondering if we could follow you around instead” Goyle continued.

Draco looked at them sceptically, “... What? Seriously?” he asked.

Goyle nodded.

“I’m a Ravenclaw” he stated.

“Yeah, but we were thinking about what you said about being friends last year, and we wanna be friends again” Crabbe said, nodding to himself as he spoke.

Draco thought about it for a while. “You’re going to have to be nice to muggleborns” he warned. They both nodded eagerly.

“Hm,” either Blaise had put them up to this to annoy him, or… he looked at Crabbe’s dopey face. _‘They actually learned how to think for themselves… That’s a shock.’_

“Fine” he said, “but you’re not shadowing me all the time, normal friends don’t do that. Just talk to me between classes or something” he huffed.

They both looked happy.

Draco rolled his eyes, then promptly kicked them out so he could read in peace.

What were those two meatheads thinking? Then again, hanging out with Crabbe and Goyle could appease his father by showing him that he was hanging out with Slytherins... Or, alternatively, Crabbe and Goyle hanging out with a Ravenclaw could piss off a lot of the other Slytherins and things would just go to hell again.

Why was being part of a ‘pureblood’ family so damn difficult.

The train finally stopped and announced their arrival at Hogwarts. He looked around again for the golden trio as he got off the train. Hermione was ahead of him with Ron’s sister but Harry and Ron were nowhere in sight.

Come on! Where the hell were they?

“Draaaaco” Michael Corner shouted to him. Draco just looked at him questionably, his tie was lopsided and his hair looked as though an owl had tried to make a nest out of it. And yet, he was beaming brightly and at once burst into tales of his summer.

Apparently, he had bought a new owl that tended to attack him whenever it was out of his cage… Why he looked so happy about that Draco really didn’t know.

They approached the carriages.  

Draco stopped.

He blinked.

The large leathery bat-like skeleton horse thing seemed to blink back at him…

“What’s wrong?” asked Michael, climbing into the carriage.

“... nothing… absolutely nothing is wrong whatsoever” Draco replied still watching the skeleton horse as he followed. _‘Haven’t these always pulled themselves?’_ he thought. He had certainly never seen them pulled by these horse things before.

He ignored Michael’s summer story about his ferocious owl for the rest of the journey up to the castle. These skeleton horses seemed familiar but at the same time he really couldn’t think of where he’d seen them before. Probably in a book. He would have to search the library.

He eyed the strange horse one last time while getting off the carriage. At least it looked kind of friendly. Other than its skeleton appearance.

They arrived at the Great Hall for the sorting. He looked over to the Gryffindor table… Harry and Ron still weren’t there. But they couldn’t have outright missed the train, right? They couldn’t be that stupid… and Fred and George were there throwing sweets at each other, so surely Ron couldn’t have missed the train?

He kept glancing over at the door throughout the sorting in the hopes they were just late.

He knew something was wrong… call it intuition. Or just the look on Snape’s face when he left halfway through the sorting only to return to the feast later with Headmaster Dumbledore.

Dumbledore happily started eating a custard tart but Severus looked as though someone had gone into his potions supplies and used them to destroy his office.

Professor McGonagall also left the feast and returned not long after looking very solemn. But there were no announcements made, and Hermione didn’t look to bothered, she was talking to Ginny who had, of course, got into Gryffindor like the rest of her family.

Draco sighed, there wasn’t anything he could do, so he turned back to Michael and Terry who were trying to convince him to proofread any homework or essays they wrote during the year.

Draco tilted his head to the side and asked “So, what will you give me in return?”

Michael glared at him “C’mon you aren’t a Slytherin” he moaned.

Draco just smiled, “doesn’t mean I can’t act like one, I don’t do favours for nothing in return. Law of equivalent exchange and all that” he said happily. He didn’t know what he could get out of this, but if reading through someone’s homework had the chance of getting him something good he wasn’t going to do it for free.

Michael grumbled, “I’ll let you use my owl?” he said slyly.

“No thanks,” Draco replied, eyeing the mess Michaels hair was in.

He may not care much about his appearance anymore, but he would if his hair looked as bad as Michaels did, there was even an owl feather sticking out the back.

“But what do you even want” Terry whined.

Draco shrugged. “You’ll have to work that out” he said turning back to his meal.

A few other students started to join in with thinking of things to exchange. Apparently, his grades from last year meant he was the guy to go to for homework and studying help, at least for the second years.

He ate quietly, catching Hermione’s eye and giving her a questioning look. She shrugged back at him.

Great, if even Hermione didn’t know where they were, then they’d surely got themselves into trouble.

Harry and Ron didn’t come into the Great Hall at all that night and he was starting to worry a little…

...

…

…

Well, he was worried, until the next morning.

He walked into the Great Hall to the sound of Mrs. Weasley screaming her head off through a howler.

_‘...Ohhhhhh_ ’ now it made sense. They’d missed the train before as well, but he’d forgotten about it, and the howler.

Without a doubt, it was still as hilarious as he remembered.

He slowly walked to the Ravenclaw table and sat down. He would have laughed out loud, like the Slytherins were, but Ron and Harry both looked as though they had just got expelled or something. So, he decided to be respectful and hold back his laughter.

‘ _The two of them were such… such idiots._ ’ Draco thought, who drives a flying car to Hogwarts? It was no wonder they crashed into the Whomping Willow. The pure Gryffindor-ishness was enough for Draco to smile into his pumpkin juice as he listened to Mrs. Weasley finish her rant.

“— ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED — YOUR FATHER’S FACING AN INQUIRY AT WORK, IT’S ENTIRELY YOUR FAULT AND IF YOU PUT ANOTHER TOE OUT OF LINE WE’LL BRING YOU STRAIGHT BACK HOME.”

The envelope fell and burst into flames in Ron’s face and the Slytherin table burst into applause immediately.

Harry immediately buried his face in his hands and Draco felt a little bad for them… but it was still really funny.

“What was that” asked the new Ravenclaw girl. Draco turned to her, she had blonde hair and was peering over a wizard magazine. Actually... she looked kind of familiar.

“A Howler” Draco replied “they're designed to increase the volume of a voice so they make good hate mail. They are also used a lot when couples break up with each other.”

She looked impressed before she went back to reading the Quibbler… she paused after a moment, “I wonder if Harry Potter will do an interview” she said aloud. Draco almost choked on his juice and stared at her.

She didn’t seem to notice.

After breakfast, Severus came around with their schedules for the year. Ravenclaw 2nd years had double Defence Against the Dark Arts as their first lesson today and the female students were giggling to each other as they walked to class.

“Bloody Lockhart” Draco murmured keeping pace with Terry and Michael.

“Yeah” Terry agreed, “Why do all the girls like him, he isn’t THAT good looking” he huffed, obviously, he was just jealous that all the girls in their year were spending their time swooning over a teacher.

They sat down near the back of class, Draco didn’t want to get any closer to the perfume smell than he needed to. But considering the entire room stank of mixed perfume smells… Well, let’s put it this way, most of the class were having trouble breathing. He sure hoped no one was asthmatic. Michael looked as though he might retch from the onslaught of flowery perfume.

It was also quite obvious as the other students came in that there was a distinctive split between the female students at the front of class, and male students at the back.

Lockhart appeared from his office with a flourish and began the lesson by speaking in a voice of utter self-importance, “Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defence League, and five-time winner of Witch Weekly’s Most-Charming-Smile Award,” he gave a smile to the class that was certainly not charming.

He strode over to his desk and picked up a stack of papers and a pink peacock feathered quill.

“Now I have printed out a little test for you all, of course you won’t have to worry as long as you have read my books. If not you have plenty of time by the end of school to catch up” He said handing out the papers and sitting on top of his desk to watch them all.

“You have thirty minutes — start — now!”

Draco sighed and stared at the list of questions.

  1. What is Gilderoy Lockhart’s favourite colour?
  2. What is Gilderoy Lockhart’s secret ambition?
  3. What, in your opinion, is Gilderoy Lockhart’s greatest achievement to date?



He groaned, and heard Terry whispering “what in Merlin’s name is this?” under his breath.

_‘Well, I’m not answering these’_ Draco decided, he did a quick scan to see if there were any ACTUAL defence against the dark arts questions. There were two… in the whole fifty questions...

Half an hour later, Lockhart collected the papers. Draco had answered some of them but mostly he had spent the time drawing a doodle of a fire breathing dragon eating Lockhart’s head on a piece of parchment.

Lockhart started rifling through the papers in front of the class. “Tut, tut — hardly any of you remembered my favourite colour. And a few of you need to read Break with a Banshee more carefully — I clearly state in chapter three that my favourite holiday would be a quiet little beach with a lovely companion and accompanied by a large bottle of Ogden’s Old Firewhisky.”

Draco zoned out for the rest of the lesson, Lockhart was just rambling about his own self achievements and what he’d done in his books for the entire time. In fact, he wasn’t particularly doing any teaching... at all.

About halfway through class he’d started doodling a crazy looking Ox on his page instead of paying attention, but he stopped when he heard something very clearly wrong.

“I tell you when I stopped the werewolf from attacking those poor people I -- yes... Mr. Malfoy?” said Lockhart.

Draco levelled him with a glare before speaking. “Right. You just said that before you stopped the werewolf with a homorphus charm... Which, by the way, I’ve never heard of, you tried INJECTING him, with the Wolfsbane potion?” he said, with as much scepticism as he could.

Lockhart gave him a smug look, “Why yes of course I --”

Draco interrupted whatever nonsense he was about to say. “The Wolfsbane potion can’t be injected into someone after that person has already become a werewolf. It needs to be consumed, NOT injected and it needs to be BEFORE the full moon or it will have no effect. Injecting it into someone’s bloodstream, even if that person is a Werewolf, would likely kill them... and in your book, you clearly note that the man was alive and well at the end” Draco said bluntly.

Lockhart gave him a hard look. “Now, now, Mr. Malfoy I’m sure I know far more about the Wolfsbane potion and its effects than you do… let’s move along.”

_‘I highly doubt you know more about potions than I do’_ ’ Draco thought, rolling his eyes,

He could see some of the male students giving him a thumbs up, but the females were glaring. It wasn’t his fault their teacher was a stupid liar. If the man was going to lie about his life’s history he could at least get the facts right.

Then again, as it was 1992, the Wolfsbane potion was still a new potion. Not a lot of wizards knew the exact uses or how it should be administered… Thankfully in 15 or so years, a potions master from America would find a way to evolve the potion to make it far more powerful, far less painful for the werewolf and it would have far less complications… now that was something he wouldn’t mind living through again.

As the lesson ended Lockhart called out to him with that self-important voice again, “wait just a minute Mr. Malfoy.”

Draco stopped, with an audible groan.

“Draco, Draco, Draco, Draco,” Lockhart said and began speaking as if he were talking to a three-year-old, “I’ve heard all about you, Ravenclaw, my old house don’t you know, yes well I know how it feels to want to act smart in front of your little friends. However, arguing with your teacher is an offence, I trust it won’t happen again but, of course, if it does I will have to start giving you detentions. I noticed you didn’t answer many of the questions on my quiz. Perhaps you should read my books again like a good little Ravenclaw and have another crack at it by the end of term… yes, that would be fine. Well, off you go then. That is all” Lockhart gave him his ‘charming’ smile and walked to his office.

Draco really wanted to punch the man.

Not hex.

Punch.

From now on he was going to listen to music or daydream throughout all of Lockhart's lessons.

But he couldn’t let Lockhart deter his mood, what kind of detention would that ass give him anyway, answering his fan-mail?

He was on his way to his next class when he heard someone shouting loudly from the courtyard.

“You’re giving out signed photos, Potter!?!”

There were a few first years lingering by the door. One of them was the blonde Ravenclaw.

“What’s up?” he asked.

One of them pointed over to the courtyard.

Blaise Zabini was standing on a bench shouting loudly to anyone that walked past him, he seemed to like making himself the centre of attention.

Draco sighed and walked past the first years. Time to see what Blaise was up to.

Crabbe and Goyle were lingering uncomfortably behind but looked over at Draco as he walked towards them.

“Oi! Harry Potter’s giving out signed photos!” Blaise shouted again, to a few third years walking past him.

“No, I’m not,” said Harry, he looked angry, “Shut up, Zabini.”

“You’re just jealous,” spoke up a little boy who was clutching a camera.

_‘Oh, Merlin I forgot about him’_ Draco thought.

“Jealous?” said Blaise leaning down to sneer at the boy, “Of what? I don’t want a foul looking scar across my head, I don’t see how getting your head cut open makes you so special Potter.”

Crabbe and Goyle were still staring at Draco as if he could somehow help them. They weren’t joining in with Blaise’s taunts and seemed to be slowly edging towards Draco instead.

He sighed, Blaise was just taunting because he knew he could get away with it. He looked around, yep there were about 10 Slytherin students around that could vouch for him if a teacher turned up.

He walked over to the little mousy boy with the camera as Ron and Blaise started yelling at each other.

“Be careful, Weasley, or I’ll tell your dear mummy” sneered Zabini. A few Slytherin students laughed at his words, obviously, they remembered the Howler from this morning.

“Shut up Zabini” Ron snapped.

Blaise continued, speaking even louder now that he had people’s attention.

“Oh, Malfoy would like a signed photo, Potter,” smirked Blaise. “He could give it to his father as a present when he gets disowned for being a useless Ravenclaw.”

Draco put his arm out in front of Ron who was trying to pull out a heavily sellotaped wand out of his pocket.

“Look out!” Hermione whispered harshly from behind them.

“What’s all this, what’s all this?” Gilderoy Lockhart was striding toward them, his turquoise robes swirling behind him. “Who’s giving out signed photos?”

Draco rolled his eyes. At least Blaise would have to go to class now. Was he that annoying back in 2nd year too? No wonder he was hated.

He really didn’t want to deal with Lockhart anymore today so he walked away quickly. Harry looked as though he wanted the ground to swallow him as Lockhart pulled him aside.

He waved to Hermione as he left, she smiled in return and went back to reading. It was almost time for his next lesson anyway.

Crabbe and Goyle followed after him.

“Hey, Malfoy” said Crabbe.

“You know, you can call me Draco” he said.

Crabbe made a sour face.

“That’s weird” he said, “anyway Malfoy, what class do you have?” he asked.

“Potions” replied Draco. _‘The best class <3’ _he thought.

“Do you wanna… hang out later?” asked Goyle. The awkwardness was evident in his voice.

“...sure” he replied. ‘ _I guess they really don’t like Blaise anymore.’_ He’d honestly thought they would’ve give up on being his friend already.

He said goodbye to them and entered the potions classroom… hanging out with Crabbe and Goyle again… now that was going to be really damn weird.

He turned his mind to potions, yes, 2 hours of nothing but potions and tranquillity was exactly what he needed to forget about the idiot Lockhart. He could still smell that damn perfume... It was nice to do something without having to deal with idiot teachers.

As it was the first day back Professor Snape questioned them all on everything they had learned last year. Much to the dismay of the other students. They may all be Ravenclaws but they still hated Professor Snape’s quizzes.

He blatantly didn’t ask Draco anything, the other students often complained that it was favouritism but actually Draco thought it was because Severus didn’t want him showing off… _‘I mean I wouldn’t show off too much… only a little’_ he thought.

They moved on to making a forgetfulness potion, as it was part of their exam last year Severus claimed they should all remember how to do it with ease... Of course, this lead to Draco having the delightful job of stopping the other students from blowing up their cauldrons.

He could well and truly understand Professor Snape’s pain as Padma stirred her cauldron the wrong way, and instead of creating a forgetfulness potion, she got a cauldron of greenish acid that ate its way through both the cauldron and the table beneath.

He was asked to stay back as they cleaned up.

“I do not understand your friendship with the fool Potter and his pet Weasel” Professor Snape said as he put away the leftover potions ingredients.

Draco smiled, “they aren’t usually that bad, you could at least try to like them” he said.

Although, from the tales of their journey to Hogwarts he could tell Severus was pretty annoyed.

“If they were in Slytherin you can be sure I would have expelled them,” Severus muttered. “Not to mention the damage they did to the Whomping Willow, it will cost a fortune to bring in someone to undo the damage they caused”

“Well I’m sure they won’t do it again, now you just have to live through potions class with them,” he replied, “and please stop taking away points from Gryffindor for no reason.”

“Tch, I can assure you there is always at least five reasons. And speaking of classes, how was your morning class?  Defence Against the Dark Arts was it?” Severus asked.

“Yes, it was fine, I guess” Draco replied. “I mean, Lockhart is useless but I’m sure I already know the spells we should be learning this year. I could probably help the other Ravenclaws too, as soon as class ended I heard some people talking about asking the upperclassmen if they can borrow their old 2nd year books.”

Professor Snape nodded in agreement then let out a heavy sigh, “I suspect this year’s DADA class will be a failure for all years” he looked slightly pained.

He knew that Severus wanted the job, it must be hard to see such a moron take it from him, but there weren’t many potions professors that could replace him.

“Just check the exam papers he writes at the end of the year, I’m not answering any questions to do with Lockhart’s obsession with himself.” Draco huffed.

Severus nodded, sitting down at his desk. He looked thoughtful for a moment before speaking again, “Draco, I need to know your opinion on something” he said.

Draco nodded, it was odd for Severus to ask him for his opinion. “Alright.” he said.

“What do you think of those... Weasley twins?” he said.

That was a surprise. Of course, he liked the twins, they were fun to be around, and despite their carefree attitude they were actually damn good wizards. He often heard his head of house Professor Flitwick muttering about how they should have been put in Ravenclaw instead of Gryffindor.

“They’re smart” he said, “but they only try when they can get something out of it. Or if they find it funny...”

“Quite Slytherin of them wouldn’t you agree” Severus muttered.

Draco shrugged, he didn’t really see any one personality as being particularly that of a house, even if the general definitions did define them as such. After all, he still saw himself as a Slytherin most of the time despite being in Ravenclaw.

“Why do you ask?” he said.

“I had a Gryffindor class this morning,” Severus replied, “and I believe that if the two of them actually tried they could pass my class with flying colours, instead they spend my lessons trying to throw ingredients into other people’s cauldrons” Professor Snape looked angrier than usual.

Draco kind of felt bad for the potions master, most his classes seemed to be full of potions going wrong. He felt a sudden heartache for his potions shop. It may have been small, but he liked it there. He could make potions whenever he liked...

“Well I don’t think the twins care much about their education” he said. “But if there was a topic they were interested in I’m sure they would work really hard at it.”

He moved the conversation on to more potion related subjects.

First of all, he shared his research of imbuing potions with magic to increase the effects.

He’d finished all the research for it last year and over the summer he’d been practicing. So far, he had only made it work twice on lesser potions, which was a start.

Professor Snape was as enthusiastic as Draco hoped he would be with the prospects and helped him fix some of his research that wasn’t quite right before he left for lunch.


	3. Quidditch practice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blaise is a copy-cat.

**Chapter 3**

The first week back was over, and he was already three times happier than he had been all summer.

Strangely, hanging around Crabbe and Goyle wasn’t as weird as he thought it would be. They were just as he remembered them being. And he could go off and rant about random topics way above a 12 year olds level of knowledge without worrying, because they didn’t have a clue what he was talking about half the time anyway.

He glanced up, he was sitting at the Ravenclaw table eating breakfast and writing his potions essay. Several Ravenclaw’s were glaring at him and Terry kept eyeing his parchment over his shoulder in an attempt to see what he had written.

He hummed thoughtfully, looking back down at the homework he was writing for Professor Snape. It was already twice as long as it was supposed to be… but there were still several more things he wanted to write.

It was fun being a potions master.

He finished up the homework and put it away in his bag, sending a glance to Terry who pretended he had been eating his toast the entire time. He smiled a little and pulled out a book on animagi, might as well get the next step to becoming an animagus out of the way as soon as possible.

He lowered the volume of the music he was listening to as Hermione and Ron approached the Ravenclaw table. Of course, they still couldn’t see the disillusioned headset, but he figured he should at least half listen to them properly.

“Malfoy” Ron greeted as he walked up to him. Draco nodded in greeting and turned a page of his book.

“Harry went out for Quidditch practice this morning and didn’t turn up for breakfast, we’re going to go find him” Hermione said, “do you want to come?” she added.

“...Sure” Draco replied.

“Are you even interested in Quidditch?” Ron asked a little sceptically.

“I used to be” Draco smiled, bookmarking his page and putting his book in his bag. He followed them out of the great hall down to the quidditch pitch. It was early for practice and it was quite cold. They sat in the stands for a while and Hermione offered Draco some toast they had brought with them from the Great Hall. After a while, the Gryffindor team walked on to the field.

“Aren’t you finished yet?” Ron shouted at the team loudly.

“Haven’t even started,” Harry shouted back, “Wood’s been teaching us new moves.”

Draco looked around the field, because it was still early morning there weren’t many people around, but he could see Ginny Weasley hovering in the stands and Colin Creevey was acting like a fanboy as he tried to get photos of Harry in the air.

 _‘Why does he take so many photos’_ he thought _‘one picture of the team on brooms is all you’ll need, the other 30 photos will surely be exactly the same, right?’_

The Gryffindor captain, Oliver Wood, flew down to the pitch suddenly. The Slytherin team was strolling across the field as if they owned the place. The other players followed Wood and flew down to the field.

 _‘Now this is familiar’_ he thought standing up with Ron and Hermione and heading down to the field.

They heard shouting.

“This can’t be good” groaned Ron. “What’s happening?” he asked Harry. “What are you doing here?” he said glaring at Zabini.

“I’m the new Slytherin Chaser, Weasley,” said Blaise, smugly. “And everyone’s just been admiring the brooms my mother bought the Slytherin team.”

Ron gaped at the seven broomsticks, Draco rolled his eyes ‘ _been there, done that. And I bet Slytherin will still bloody lose’_... ‘ _wait is Blaise literally copying me?_ ’ he wondered.

“Good, aren’t they?” Blaise continued to talk about how much better he was than everyone but Draco wasn’t listening. _‘Blaise was never interested in Quidditch before… or maybe he was, I don’t remember him being interested in Quidditch though... Did he join the team because of his rivalry with Harry just like I did before?’_ Draco thought. ‘ _How else is he saying almost exactly what I said’_

He looked up when Hermione spoke. “At least no one on the Gryffindor team had to buy their way in,” she said sharply. “They got in on pure talent.” The smug look on Blaise’s face flickered.

“Shut up, filthy Mudblood,” Blaise spat.

Draco winced along with all the Gryffindor’s.

Yes, he had used that word a lot in his youth. Particularly before the War.

But he had also spent a long time forcing himself never to use that word again.

The majority of 8th year had actually been him biting his tongue every time he was about to say it to someone... Things were changed after the war and it was a lot easier to be nice to people than to bring up old rivalries.

Flint had to dive in front of Blaise to stop Fred and George jumping on him and Ron plunged his hand into his robes and pulled out his wand as the other team members started shouting.

“You’ll pay for that one, Zabini!” Ron said furiously pointing it at Blaise’s face.

He could have stopped him, pulled Ron’s wand away or something… but Blaise did kind of deserve to be hexed.

Draco winced at the loud bang as a jet of green light shot out of the wrong end of Ron’s wand and sent him reeling backward onto the grass. Ron’s wand landed next to him and Draco stooped down to pick it up.

It had so much sellotape on it, it was a wonder it worked at all.

 _‘Why does he continue to use such a broken wand? Surely if you have to tape it back together it’s time to get a new one’_ Draco thought. _‘Ron must know how dangerous a broken wand is, if he tries any higher-level spells he might hurt himself really badly.’_

He thought of his own wand, he was getting quite fond of it actually… It wasn’t that different to the one he used to have and suited him quite nicely as he didn’t tend to cast spells very often anyway.

“Ron! Ron! Are you alright?” squealed Hermione, rushing over to Ron’s side.

Ron opened his mouth to speak but ending up burping slugs. It was pretty disgusting, the slime dribbled from his chin as he threw up more.

On the other hand, the Slytherin team were paralyzed with laughter. Flint was doubled up, hanging onto his new broomstick for support and Blaise was rolling around on the floor, and banging the ground with his fist.

Ron looked as though he was going to shout at them again but burped up more slugs instead.

Harry ran over and pulled Ron up, “We’d better get him to Hagrid’s, it’s nearest,” he said.

He walked over and helped Harry and Hermione lift Ron up properly. They walked across the pitch, ignoring the howling laughter of the Slytherin team.

Colin Creevy ran over to them looking excited, “Harry! What happened? Did he get hexed? You can cure him, right?” Ron gave a huge heave and more slugs dribbled down his front. “Oooh,” said Colin with obvious fascination, “can you hold him still, Harry?”

Harry looked furious, he really didn’t seem to like his new fanboy. Draco shooed the boy away quickly so they could keep walking to Hagrid’s. He’d have to have a talk with Colin about what was deemed an acceptable level of fanboying. In fact, he might have to have words with Ginny as well considering her stalking habits so far.

Gilderoy Lockhart came striding out of Hagrid’s house just as they got there. He was wearing pale mauve robes and a matching hat. Hagrid was in his house trying to close the door on him.

“Quick, behind here,” Harry hissed, dragging Ron behind a nearby bush. Hermione followed, somewhat reluctantly but Draco pulled her along.

“It’s a simple matter if you know what you’re doing!” Lockhart was saying loudly to Hagrid, his foot in the way of the door closing. “If you need help, you know where I am! I’ll let you have a copy of my book. I’m surprised you haven’t already got one — I’ll sign one tonight and send it over. Well, good-bye!” He turned gracefully and strode away toward the castle, his mauve robes swirling impeccably in the wind.

Draco rolled his eyes at Lockhart’s back _‘what an asshole_ ’, they pulled Ron out of the bush, who immediately ducked back into the bush to throw up some slugs.

They knocked on the door urgently. Hagrid appeared looking as though he was going to murder someone, but immediately brightened when he saw them, “Ah, bin wonderin’ when you’d come ter see me — come in, come in — Thought you were that fella Lockhart back again.”

Harry hastily explained Ron’s slug problem and Hagrid got a big bucket for him. “Better out than in,” he said cheerfully, handing it over and motioning them all to sit down. “Get ’em all up, Ron.”

They sat for a while, watching Ron turn green every time he had to throw up slugs. Fang padded over and started slobbering over Harry.  

After a minute or so Hermione sighed anxiously, “I don’t think there’s anything to do except wait for it to stop,” she said, watching Ron bend over the basin. “That’s a difficult curse to work at the best of times, but with a broken wand--”

“You really should get a new one” said Draco, he still had the wand in his hand. “Sellotape and wands don’t mix well.”

Ron retched loudly and didn’t reply.

“So, what did Lockhart want?” Draco asked, Lockhart was even bothering Hagrid it seemed. The sooner this year was over the better.

“Givin’ me advice on gettin’ kelpies out of a well,” growled Hagrid “Like I don’ know. An’ bangin’ on about some banshee he banished. If one word of it was true, I’ll eat my kettle.”

Draco laughed but Hermione looked annoyed, “I think you’re being a bit unfair. Professor Dumbledore obviously thought he was the best man for the job —”

“He was the on’y man for the job,” said Hagrid, offering them a plate of treacle toffee, that they politely declined because they knew it would destroy their teeth. “An’ I mean the on’y one. Gettin’ very difficult ter find anyone fer the Dark Arts job. People aren’t too keen ter take it on, see. They’re startin’ ter think it’s jinxed. No one’s lasted long fer a while now.” he sat down with them.

“So, tell me,” he said, jerking his head at Ron. “Who was he tryin’ ter curse?”

“Blaise called Hermione something — it must’ve been really bad, because everyone went wild.” Harry said

“It was bad,” said Draco. “He called her a ‘Mudblood.’”

Hagrid looked outraged. “He didn’!” he growled and stared at Hermione for confirmation.

“He did,” she said. “And he’s called me that in the past too, but I don’t know what it means. I could tell it was really rude, of course —”

“It’s about the most insulting thing he could think of,” gasped Ron, coming up from the slug filled bucket. “Mudblood’s a really foul name for someone who is Muggle-born. Not many wizards use it ‘cause it’s like a slur, but there are some wizards - like Zabini’s family and urr…others” he glanced at Draco briefly “who think they’re better than everyone else because they’re what people call pure-blood.”

He ducked his head into the bucket as he threw up some more slugs before he continued, “I mean, the rest of us know it doesn’t make any difference at all. I mean, look at Neville— he’s pure-blood and he can hardly stand a cauldron the right way up.”

 _‘Actually, Neville’s getting better recently’_ Draco mused.

“An’ they haven’t invented a spell our Hermione can’t do,” said Hagrid proudly, making Hermione go a brilliant shade of magenta.

“It’s a disgusting thing to call someone,” continued Ron.

“But what does it mean?” Harry asked. “It’s not like someone’s blood is made of mud, right? I thought everyone’s blood was the same… I’ve heard of blood types but...”

Draco sighed and shook his head, “it’s meant to mean like ‘Dirty blood’, or common blood I guess. It’s all a lie really, no one’s blood has any more magic than anyone else’s, every witch and wizard has a magical core and the power of someone’s core magic differs depending on loads of different reasons, some witches or wizards are born with more powerful magic...”

 _‘Like you Harry’_ he thought.

“-Others have to practice a lot to increase their core magic. The whole muggleborn, halfblood or pureblood thing doesn’t make any difference at all…” he sighed, “I guess a lot of pureblood families like to think their blood is better than others so that they can act superior” Draco shrugged.

 _‘At least I was always taught that I was superior because of blood and I’m sure many other purebloods are told that’_ he mused.

“Yeah” piped in Ron “Most wizards these days are half-blood anyway. If we hadn’t married Muggles we’d’ve died out.” He retched and ducked out of sight again.

“Then why don’t you think that way” asked Harry, looking at Draco curiously.

Draco sighed, _‘the answer to that is simple, I was educated after many years of being wrong… even the Slytherins can change if they are taught what’s right and what’s just prejudice bullshit...’_ he thought.

“My father thinks that way, but I guess I don’t because I read a lot, so I know the truth about things... Besides I don’t want something as stupid as blood getting in the way of making friends” he replied. After all, he couldn’t tell them the truth without revealing the fact that he’d travelled back in time.

Harry looked happy with the answer and Hermione did too, Ron was still retching in the background, so they sat in comfortable silence, other than the squelchy sound of slugs every now and then.

Draco sighed, and thought about blood status more, _‘It’s true that pureblood families think they are better than others... But there really is no way to make them change unless they want to change… just look at me I believed I was better than others for all my life and never believed I was wrong, even when others told me I would just get defensive about it. That is until after the war I was forced to change my view’_ he sighed again. _‘There are so many books written after the war on this subject I wish some were written now._

He ran his hands through his hair. _‘If there was a way to get more pureblood. Or even just Slytherin families involved with muggles or muggleborns so they could see that they aren’t that different then things would be so much better… but no pureblood Slytherin family in any way like my own would let their child near a muggleborn let alone an actual muggle.’_

“Are you okay Draco?” Harry asked. Draco slowly drifted back into the conversation. Harry was looking at him curiously, he nodded.

“Harry,” said Hagrid abruptly as though struck by a sudden thought. “Gotta bone ter pick with yeh. I’ve heard you’ve bin givin’ out signed photos. How come I haven’t got one?”

Draco started laughing again and covered his mouth with his hand when Harry shot him a furious glare.

“I have not been giving out signed photos,” he said hotly. “If Lockhart’s still spreading that around —”

But then Hagrid started laughing too. “I’m on’y jokin’,” he said, hitting Harry on the back good naturedly, although Harry looked winded after.

“First Lockhart’s following me around to lecture me about popularity, and now the Slytherins are interrupting my quidditch practice. What a good start to the year” said Harry sarcastically.

“At least you can knock Zabini off his broom” said Ron. He ignored Hermione’s disapproving look.

Harry just snorted.

“Why did Blaise join the team anyway” Draco asked.

“Who knows why that prat does anything” Ron grumbled from his bucket of slugs.

Harry shrugged, “I don’t care if Blaise wants to be a Chaser, but if Snape starts giving them more practice time, I’m going to be annoyed.”

Draco sighed, “you really don’t like Professor Snape do you.”

Harry paused but Ron answered over him, “who would like the greasy git?”

“Oi, c’mon now” interrupted Hagrid, he gave Ron a stern look. “‘E’s a Professor, show ‘im some respect.”  Ron muttered an apology under his breath.

“Well I don’t hate Professor Snape,” Hermione piped up. “Although, I’m certain he doesn’t like Harry. He hasn’t ever done anything outright bad to us, although he certainly likes to take away points from Ron in class… In first year, I only didn’t like him because I thought he was trying to steal the stone.”

Hagrid looked uncomfortable at the mention of the philosopher's stone.

Draco eyed Harry and Ron, “well considering the entrance to school you two had this year, I think he has a right not to like you now.”

Harry looked embarrassed and Ron had his head lowered over his bucket. Perhaps they were still upset about the howler.

Hagrid broke the awkward silence, “I got somethin’ to show ya” he said, and ushered then outside into the small vegetable patch behind his house where a dozen large pumpkins were growing. “Gettin’ on well, aren’t they?” said Hagrid happily. “Should be big enough in time fer the Halloween feast.”

“What’ve you been feeding them?” asked Harry.

Hagrid looked over his shoulder to check that they were alone, “Well, I’ve bin givin’ them a bit o’ help I s’pose”

“An Engorgement Charm,” said Hermione, halfway between disapproval and amusement.

“Well, you’ve done a good job on them.” said Ron who was starting to look a little better. “And give me back my wand” he said turning to Draco.

Draco just smiled and handed it to him, “be careful using it at least” he said.

Ron turned away with a huff.

“Yer sister liked ‘em too, met her jus’ yesterday.” Hagrid looked sideways at Harry, his beard twitching. “Neville was with her and said he was jus’ showin’ her round the grounds, but I reckon she was hopin’ she might run inter someone else at my house.” He winked at Harry. “If yeh ask me, she wouldn’ say no ter a signed —”

“Oh, shut up,” said Harry. Ron snorted with laughter and the ground was sprayed with slugs.

“Watch it!” Hagrid roared, pulling Ron away from his precious pumpkins.

They left a while later, Ron was only burping slugs every 20 or so minutes now.

Draco kept pace with Hermione, glancing at her every now and then. Harry and Ron walked ahead talking about Quidditch teams.

“You shouldn’t worry about it” Draco said.

Hermione looked at him startled, then feigned nonchalance.

“I don’t know what you mean” she said.

“You keep sighing, you’re not very good at hiding when you’re annoyed… I can see you taking what they called you to heart and you should know that you are better than all of them” Draco said.

Hermione bit her lip but nodded.

“I guess I’d rather be from a muggle family than a family that believe people are inferior to them like Zabini’s” she said.

Draco couldn’t agree more.

“Absolutely. You’re the coolest girl in the whole wide world Hermione, don’t let anyone tell you differently” he said walking ahead to help Harry and Ron. Ron had just burped up slugs onto his own robes and Draco used a clean-up charm on him to help…

He then proceeded to teach them both how to use a clean-up charm for future use.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I didn't update last week~ and sorry this chapter has a lot of talking and not a lot of things actually happening.


	4. Halloween

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Halloween goes to shit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My apologies for the wait, I had two essays I needed to complete at the same time as losing internet for about 5 days, so fanfiction was the last thing on my mind lol.   
> But everything should be fine now... hopefully.

**Chapter 4**

As October came so did the wind and rain, Draco spent most of his time in the library, reading books or talking to Professor Snape. His classes were still far too easy for him, well they were directed at 12 year olds after all. So instead, he was spending his time doing animagi stuff or practicing imbuing magic into potions.

_‘I really fuckin’_ love this library’ Draco thought. He swept along the rows of books and pulled out a few that seemed useful. The Hogwarts library had a lot of information for imbuing objects with magic, literally by casting spells onto things, but there wasn’t much information for using magic to enhance effects of a potion, which is what he really wanted to do. Potions themselves were a lot more entwined with magic than they appeared, so casting a random spell onto one wasn’t the best idea.

He looked up, and frowned.

Every now and then, Ginny would come in, look around, then disappear again.

She did the same thing in the Great Hall… It wasn’t very subtle, she was just doing her best to stalk Harry… She was like, 11 though, so it made sense probably? And it wasn’t like she had anything else to do.

He finally ran into her along the charms hallway, she was hiding behind a corner watching Harry leaving class.

“You should just talk to him if you want to meet him” he said.

Ginny jumped and twirled around in fright.

“I Don’t Know What You’re Talking About!” she almost shouted.

“I’m talking about Harry Potter. I’m not a fan of stalkers, but if you really want to meet him you should just go talk to him” he said. He knew of course that they would end up together after the war… although he wasn’t entirely sure what happened after that.

Since she’d only just started Hogwarts she probably only knew him as the saviour of the wizarding world or whatever... The best thing she could do was to actually get to know him.

“I-I’m not about to take advice from you” she huffed and cast a glance over her shoulder, Harry was long gone by now… “h-has Harry ever mentioned me?” she asked, trying to look casual.

“... I’ll be honest with you I think he only knows you as Ron’s sister” Draco replied. He’d never heard Harry mention her and Ron only introduced her once. Ginny looked put out, then glared at him.

“You were meant to be in Slytherin, right?” she asked.

“Sure, I guess” Draco replied with a shrug, “but the hat wanted me in Ravenclaw.”

“...I told the hat to put me in Gryffindor…” Ginny said quietly, she looked upset.

“Don’t you like it in Gryffindor?” he asked in confusion. Why was she telling him this? Did she feel out of place? He knew he did when he first went into Ravenclaw but that’s because he was so used to being Slytherin. In fact, he was still trying to get used to the blue Ravenclaw school ties.

“O-of course!” she huffed.

Draco eyed her carefully, now that he thought about it, he only ever saw her on her own trying to follow Harry… he hoped she had friends.

“Well if you ever need anything, you should talk to Neville, he’s a Gryffindor and he’ll help you with homework and stuff” he said.

She bristled, but the bell for class starting went off and Draco took the chance to leave. He thought maybe he should tell Ron he was worried about his sister… but then it wasn’t really Ron’s business... or his. Hopefully she would get over the stalking soon.

-

He sat with Harry, Ron and Hermione in the library, casually studying the patronus charm, although he kind of felt like he would never have a strong or happy enough memory to use a full patronus, happy memories just weren’t his thing. Wow that sounded depressing, he had happy memories, they just weren’t… THAT happy.

The other three didn’t notice what he was studying because they were busy discussing Nearly Headless Nick’s Death-day party. How did the golden trio always end up invited to things like this. Honestly.

“There can’t be many people who have seen it” Hermione said happily, “it’ll be fascinating, would you like to come Draco?” she asked.

Draco thought about it, “hmm I’ve heard about Death-day parties before, but I’m not really that interested” he said, “you guys have fun though.”

Hermione pouted but Ron seemed to be in agreement.

“It sounds dead depressing to me” he groaned.

“Tough luck Ronald you are coming with us, we wouldn’t let Harry go all alone after all” Hermione huffed. Ron continued to complain as Hermione forced him to write a potions essay.

“Who gives a 3ft essay this early in the school year” Ron whined.

“Oh, come on Ron, 3ft is nothing” Hermione huffed, she was almost done already.

Draco smiled and continued to read his book. With luck, they would stay at the Death-day party and not be involved in the first attack.

-

By the time it was Halloween day, Draco was beyond nervous, he looked around the Great Hall. Everything was decorated and students were already digging in to the food. The golden trio were at Nearly Headless Nick’s Death-day party… they couldn’t get into any trouble if they were there... right?

Besides, the first attack might not happen on Halloween this time… right?

He sighed and took a seat at the Ravenclaw table. Ever since he came back in time it seemed that events were playing out the way they had before, regardless of what he did. Most of the Slytherin’s took his place in bullying the other houses even though he wasn’t there. And at least Blaise was there to be Harry’s ‘rival’ or ‘enemy’ or whatever.

Things seemed to be the same… yet different. He wasn’t sure how exactly that would affect the future but… It gave him hope that no one would die and everyone would be rescued again at the end of this year at least.

The only problem was... he still wanted to help in some way. After all, he didn’t want people to get petrified and he certainly didn’t want to risk the school being closed.

He would have to go back to live with Lucius again if that happened.

But he didn’t know what to do, he didn’t know what it was petrifying people and he couldn’t remember much about what happened throughout the year. He’d joined the Quidditch team, he had probably been happy about the muggleborns being attacked… and there had been an attack on Halloween with more all throughout the year…

During the summer, he had scoured the library at home for anything that could help but still nothing. Even the Hogwarts library didn’t have much help when Draco really didn’t know what he was looking for.

In Hogwarts: A History, it said the thing in the chamber was a creature or monster so perhaps he should look for magical creatures? He could ask some of the Hufflepuffs… a lot of them seemed obsessed with animals, magical or non-magical.

Although, he did finally manage to find a book about thestrals. Bat-like skeletal horses that you could only see if you saw someone die. That was the first time he’d fully realised that, despite coming back in time, his experiences still affected his 12-year-old self. He had seen many people die in the war and although that was in the future, maybe his memories from it were enough for him to be able to see them.

The magical world was weird like that.

He had spent the past few mornings out in the fields around the castle feeding thestrals with Luna Lovegood. She was always quite an oddball, but very kind. He hadn’t recognised her at first but he was pretty sure she would become Harry’s friend…

“The Quibbler really is great this month” Luna said as they ate at the feast. “I should write to my father and tell him of all the nargles here at Hogwarts.”

“That sounds great Luna, but how can you read it when it’s upside down?” he asked.

“Sometimes it’s great to have a clear perspective” she said smiling. “You’ve seen those nargles too right, they get into the heads of students and keep them from passing classes. You don’t seem to have as many around you.”

Draco hesitated thinking back on last year when he drank the potion of nature… did potion-induced hallucinations count as seeing them? “I’ve seen them before” he agreed “but I don’t see them all the time.”

“Oh! Well, of course no one can see them all the time, they just crop up when you least expect them” Luna continued. Draco noticed that everyone else had moved away from where he and Luna were sitting except Terry who sat opposite and was giving them very odd looks.

“Oi Draco” Michael called happily “stop sitting with loon- Luna, I finally have something to trade you for checking my homework” he said. Draco didn’t get up but waved Michael over instead. Michael didn’t seem to want to approach but eventually sat down next to him.

He pulled out a very strange looking plant. Draco knew what it was, “did you raid Professor Snape’s ingredients?” He asked raising an eyebrow.

“No, no, no, I found it outside last full moon and I thought, I know who likes potions! So here, this is my trade” Michael looked very proud of himself.

Draco eyed the Fluxweed, then Michael. “Curse you” he said accepting the gift. “But I’m not writing all your stuff for you, just spell checking and fact checking, so don’t expect me to make it A grade”

Michael grinned happily and proceeded to tell Draco all about his potions essay that sounded like it already had 70% of the facts wrong. Draco corrected his information and tried to put the possibility of an attack out of his mind.

When they started eating dessert, the topics for discussion seemed to get very deep and moving. Susan Bones spent a long time explaining to them all how a happy life was truly the meaning of life and that nothing mattered if you weren’t happy. Draco thought that sounded very Hufflepuffy to be honest.

“So, Draco it’s your turn. What is the meaning of life?” Terry asked.

“42” Draco replied immediately and without thought.

“...” the other students stared at him.

“...” he stared back.

_‘Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck’_ He bit his lip… There was no way he could explain his way out of this.

_‘Okay time to do the one thing that makes everything better. Just act as though you are right and they are all stupid for not knowing.’_ He stared them all in the eyes as he finished his dessert.

Terry awkwardly moved the conversation along to someone else with only a few more odd looks in his direction.

Luna was beaming at him as though he was Merlin himself.

He tried to ignore everyone else after that, how could he possibly explain Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy to a bunch of 11 and 12-year-old Hogwarts students? Just because his muggle radio started playing the series over the past few weeks of summer and he had a slight obsession…

He only half listened to the rest of the conversation but no one tried to question him on his answer after he stared someone that tried to ask in the eye until they backed off.

As the feast ended and they all trampled through the hallways Draco could feel his fear growing again, ‘ _damnit I was less scared last year and Voldemort was right in front of me half the time!’_

Sometimes Draco hated being a coward.

They all stopped and stared at the writing on the wall... and there was the golden trio, staring at them all like a deer in headlights.

‘ _AHHHhhhhh WHAT ARE THEY DOING! Idiots, why would they just stand there!!’_ Draco felt like curling up in a corner and shouting ‘idiots’ for a few hours.

Eventually Pansy took a step forward and read the writing. “Enemies of the Heir, beware!” She whipped around to Colin who was snapping photos “You’ll be next, Mudbloods!” she hissed.

Draco rolled his eyes, _‘Come on guys, you’ve got to stop copying me, honestly.’_

Then Filch was running along and screaming at Harry for the attack on his cat. Draco tried to push forward to say something but the other teachers came running before he got the chance.

He saw Severus glance at him and he shook his head in what he hoped meant ‘ _it is definitely not their fault.’_

Dumbledore arrived and swept past Harry, Ron, and Hermione, he detached Mrs. Norris from the torch bracket.

Professor Snape eyed Draco carefully before turning back to the golden trio, “perhaps… we should discuss this elsewhere” he said.

Dumbledore nodded, “Come with me, Argus,” he said to Filch. “You, too, Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, Miss Granger.”

Lockhart stepped forward looking far too eager considering the circumstances. Draco resisted the urge to hex him.

“My office is nearest, Headmaster, please feel free to discipline them there,” Lockhart smiled.

“Thank you, Gilderoy,” said Dumbledore, the Professors left, Severus had his lips pressed tightly together as he walked past.

Draco watched them silently but tried to smile a little when he caught Hermione’s eye, at least they should know that he trusted them.

Harry was about to get a lot of shit for the rest of the year.

The students around him seemed to wake up and start walking back to their dorm. The moment the teachers were out of sight they started whispering loudly.

Terry practically dragged him back to the Ravenclaw common room, despite his protests that he wanted to make sure the golden trio were all right. Or at least get a better look at the writing on the wall, come on…

He went to bed that night and had awful dreams involving people being petrified and his father laughing maniacally, but when he woke up he had already forgotten them.

-

For the following few days the only thing anyone talked about was the attack on Mrs Norris. Draco could already see students avoiding the golden trio as if one look would harm them somehow.

He decided to spend some time talking to his Hufflepuff friend Jack Bauer, who introduced him to a girl called Hannah Abbot, he remembered her a little but didn’t think he had ever spoken to her in his life.

She read a history book while he spoke to Jack.

“You need to sit with us again at the Hufflepuff table, I’m trying to find a way to make more students sit with each other across the houses!” Jack said excitedly, Hufflepuffs always seemed to want to promote friendship for some reason.

Draco shrugged, he’d sat with them before and all he got was a raised eyebrow from the teachers and sneers from the Slytherins.

“it doesn’t matter to me where I sit” he said, and listened to Jack’s crazy ideas until he finally left them to go to the library.

He wanted to look up some stuff before his next class started, possibly on imbuing, possible on the chamber of secrets monster… But he ran into Ron as he was looking for books at the back of the library. It seemed Ron was trying to measure his History of Magic homework that was due next class. Professor Binns had asked for a three-foot-long composition on “The Medieval Assembly of European Wizards.”

“I don’t believe it, I’m still eight inches short…” said Ron furiously, letting go of his parchment, which sprang back into a roll. “And Hermione’s done four feet seven inches and her writing’s tiny. You get the same assignments as us, right? How much have you done?” He asked Draco.

“Four feet two inches and my History class was this morning” Draco said casually. He was ahead on all homework so far and had spent the past few days helping other Ravenclaws. Apparently, it was now a thing to bribe him with potions ingredients, and curse them all it was working.

Draco loved to have a trunk full of rare potions ingredients. He’d began secretly brewing a lot of things in his room too, it was hard to keep it from the other room occupants but he didn’t think they would tell the teachers anyway.

Harry turned up looking upset as Ron groaned loudly and flailed in his chair, his parchment rolled onto the floor. “Why do I hang out with smart people that don’t do my homework for me” he whined.

“Where is Hermione?” asked Harry, ignoring the complaint and starting to unroll a parchment of his own.

“Somewhere over there,” said Ron, pointing along the shelves. “Looking for another book. I think she’s trying to read the whole library before Christmas.”

“I think she’s read the whole library already” Draco commented. Ron nodded in agreement.

“She’s probably trying to read it a second time” he said.

Harry told them about a Hufflepuff boy named Justin running away from him. Draco couldn’t even remember who this person was... Like, Jack had never mentioned him and he did not know the names of Hufflepuffs... then again Jack only mentioned things if he could insert the word ‘find’ into the sentence.

Harry also kept eyeing Draco strangely as if he wanted to say something... 

But before he could ask Hermione emerged from between the bookshelves. She looked irritable and walked around sulking for a while before she at last seemed ready to talk to them. “All the copies of Hogwarts: A History have been taken out,” she said, sitting down next them with a heavy sigh. “And there’s a two-week waiting list. I wish I hadn’t left my copy at home, but I couldn’t fit it in my trunk with all the Lockhart books.”

“Why do you want it?” said Harry.

“The same reason everyone else wants it,” said Hermione, “to read up on the legend of the Chamber of Secrets.”

Draco paused. Of course, he knew the full story of the Chamber of Secrets the teachers had told them last time it happened, but should he tell them himself? And he had his own Hogwarts: A History book upstairs…

“Hermione, I have a copy in my room” said Harry, “you should have said something”

“You do?” Hermione’s eyes lit up happily.

“Yeah, Draco gave me a copy last year, remember” Harry said.

_‘At least it’s been useful’_ Draco thought. He doubted Harry had actually read the whole thing though.

The bell rang and Draco cursed to himself that he hadn’t had time to look for books properly. They parted ways to go to class and he could hear Ron and Hermione bickering as they walked. Even now they bickered just like they did later in life.

“Hermione, let me read your composition,” said Ron desperately.

“No, I won’t,” said Hermione, suddenly severe. “You’ve had ten days to finish it —”

“I only need another few inches, come on —”

He headed towards his own class and ran into Crabbe and Goyle again on the way, it seemed they still really wanted to be friends. And again... he had expected them to give up by now.

“Blaise keeps calling you a blood traitor” Crabbe whined at him.

“So?” he replied

“Well it’s not true! He keeps sending owls to his parents lately too! Said he wants to find out more about the Chamber and stuff” Goyle said.

“How would you define a blood traitor?” Draco asked, the fact that Blaise was trying to find out about the chamber didn’t really bother him. If he couldn’t find out anything then Zabini certainly wouldn’t be able to.

“Well they… uhhhhh” Crabbe continued to say ‘uhhh’ until Draco cut him off.

“A blood traitor is defined as someone who associates with muggles and muggleborns… so I am definitely a blood traitor” Draco stated. Crabbe and Goyle looked uncomfortable.

“But! You aren’t bad! And you aren’t weird about it like the Weasleys are!” Goyle whined.

“Who told you the Weasleys were weird for hanging around muggles and muggleborns?” Draco asked raising an eyebrow.

Both Crabbe and Goyle started making the ‘uhh’ sound again.

“Okay, okay stop it, Jesus Christ” Draco muttered.

“Jesus what?” Crabbe whined. Apparently, they didn’t like it when he used words they didn’t know… then again, he probably shouldn’t refer to muggle religious figures around them.

“Never mind” he sighed. “Look. I don’t care whether I’m a blood traitor or, whatever, I don’t think purebloods are superior to anyone and I’m not going to pretend I am better than people just to boost my own ego…anymore” he huffed, he’d done that before and it hadn’t exactly made him feel better about anything anyway...

Crabbe and Goyle started whispering to each other as they came up to Draco’s class. They would have to leave him alone now if they wanted to make it to their own class on time.

“What do you mean?” they said together, it seemed they had agreed on something through their whispering.

Draco sighed. “Guys, blood ‘purity’ doesn’t matter, it makes no difference to someone’s magical ability. If it did, then you two wouldn’t be almost failing half your classes.”

“Yeah but now we have you to help us pass” Goyle said excitedly.

“... Maybe” Draco shrugged in agreement, waving goodbye to them as he entered his class.

He really wanted to go back to the writing on the wall and see if he could find some clues about the monster… but everyone kept getting in the way.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, in the book the writing on the wall is green, but in the movie it's written with blood or something... I don't know which one I like more. You guys can use your imagination for what colour it is.


	5. The Polyjuice Potion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Help, exam stress, ahhhh.

**Chapter 5**

In retrospect, helping the other Ravenclaws with their homework was quite a lot of fun.

Sure, they made stupid mistakes in their writing all the time, but then again, they were 12 so it made sense.

At least they were all smart, or at least extremely passionate about specific subjects... It made it fun to talk to them and learn new things about subjects he didn’t usually read about.

Otherwise, he walked around with Luna, she was always finding new creatures that sounded made up, but the way she talked about them was really amazing, you could tell that she loved all magical creatures. ‘ _Maybe she could tame Michaels owl’_ he mused.

Helping Michael care for that damn murderous owl was a big task.

Due mostly to the fact that every time it destroyed their room, he had to fix it before Professor Flitwick found out. Although they couldn’t really work out why the owl seemed to hate literally everything. Terry joined in too when he wasn’t hanging out with other Ravenclaws like Anthony or Padma.

He was lying in bed reading when a brown fluffy owl flew through the window and hopped over to him.

“Oh my wizard God that owl is so cute” said Terry, immediately walking over to the owl and coaching it up onto his arm.

He rolled his eyes, Terry was a sucker for any cute animals.

“There’s a letter for you” said Terry, removing the envelope from the owl’s beak and handing it over to him.

Now that was curious, normally he only got letters from his mother’s owl. He sat up in bed and opened the letter, reading the swirly, cursive writing with a sigh.

 

Draco,

A number of Slytherin students are writing home regarding the Chamber of Secrets. I advise you to keep your nose out and carry on with your studies as normal. I’ve also heard that Zabini’s son made the quidditch team, perhaps you could try harder to join the team yourself.

-

Lucius Malfoy.

 

“Oh, well that’s pleasant” said Terry, who was glancing at the letter over his shoulder. 

“I know right” replied Draco, “this is the first letter he has sent me this year.”

“It’s too bad you aren’t interested in Quidditch though, you could help me convince Michael that the Chudley Cannons are a good team.” Terry said with a grin.

“I’m with you on that, but I’m far too busy to get involved with Quidditch,” he replied, he dropped the letter into his trunk, why would his father not want him to get involved with the chamber anyway. Well… Actually… didn’t he write home to his father last time? He couldn’t really remember properly.

He sighed loudly, watching Terry play with the owl.

“What’s up?” Terry asked, “you thinking about the chamber and stuff? Everyone is so on edge lately.”

“Nah, just wondering how stupid people must be to think it’s Harry” he replied easily.

“People’ll believe anything nowadays,” Terry said, letting the owl fly back out the window. “Are you going to join our study session tonight! You can help me finish my essay for Snape!”

“Sure...” Draco said, going back to reading and leaving the letter from his father forgotten in his trunk.

-

Every Sunday evening the Ravenclaw students had study sessions, it was mostly a way to finish the homework they had meant to do over the weekend. He sat with the other students as they wrote their essays. Although he was doing his own research, he had already finished all his homework a while ago. Luna was in the background handing out the Quibbler to the other Ravenclaw first years.

“Why do we have to write an essay on flobberworm mucus, why~!” whined Michael loudly.

This was a very common utterance for their study group and the other students ignored him as they wrote their essays.

“Because it’s a useful potions ingredient” replied Draco, he was used to Michael’s whining, “and you should really start it instead of just talking about it, it’s due tomorrow”

“I don’t think I could write a decent essay with this much time so I think I’ll just fail, I’ll work harder on the next one” sighed Michael with his head on the desk.

He looked tired and Draco felt a little bad for him. But that didn’t mean he would let him off from doing his homework.

“I’ll help you make a decent essay so start writing” Draco said, smacking him on the back, Michael whined more but picked up his quill eventually.  

Luna walked over to them, “Would you like a quibbler?” she asked.

“Sure” he said, taking one from her, he was probably the only person who took one.

“There’s a very interesting article on emotional healing with magic this week” Luna commented before drifting off towards her room.

“She’s so loony” muttered a 4th year under his breath, Draco glared at them.

“Don’t be rude” he said.

“You shouldn’t encourage her either” the 4th year said to him, looking like he was as self-important as bloody Lockhart. “There isn’t any evidence behind these made-up creatures she always talks about.”

“What was your name?” asked Draco,

“Roger Davis” the guy replied with a smug look, it wasn’t quite a Slytherin level of smugness but it still pissed him the fuck off.

“I don’t remember you.” he stated bluntly. “Who are you to tell someone what they can and can’t believe in. This is a world of magic, I think you should accept that some things can’t be explained.”

Davis went a very dark shade of purple. Draco hoped the guy would feel embarrassed when Luna grew up to be a successful magizoologist. That is, if she still became one now that he was back in time.

“Oh, I’m sorry are you embarrassed that a 2nd year called you out on your bullying?” he continued, “perhaps you should stop flirting with every girl you see and work on being a better person.”

No one said anything, except for Padma whispering ‘oh snap’ quite loudly. Davis looked as though he were too shocked to reply. He fully expected the guy to get angry, shout at him or something but he just walked off sulking instead. Maybe it was a good idea to watch out for revenge… or maybe getting revenge was just a Slytherin thing.

_‘...Wait… When had he used the phrase ‘Oh Snap’ around Padma?!?’_

-

Over the next few days the 4th year Ravenclaws glared at him when he walked past. Davis must have spread around what happened or something.

Not that he cared.

“No, no, no, all I’m saying is that the sorting hat is bullshit, right!”

Draco rolled his eyes.

“You’re not listening to me!” Jack said smacking him with a book.

“Ow… I’m listening, seriously” Draco said flipping another page in his book, ‘ _why was Jack always hitting him with things.’_ he huffed… then again he rarely paid full attention to him...

“Humans are not so neat and tidy that you can categorise them in a certain way!” Jack lectured, “Like sure I’m a Hufflepuff but I could grow up and decide, no I don’t want to be a Hufflepuff I want to lead my family on a dangerous journey and not pay attention to any of them and lose my daughter to a bandit king. Then I wouldn’t be Hufflepuff anymore right ‘cause I’m too irresponsible! I’m kinda like a Gryffindor or something!... Right?”

“...is this hypothetical or are you planning something” Draco asked. He got smacked by a book again.

“Not everyone is the same when they are 11 or 12 as when they grow up, change is human! Like you’re a Ravenclaw but I know that you act like a Slytherin sometimes! And I could even argue that you act like a Hufflepuff. That’s ‘cause you aren’t just a Ravenclaw! You have other aspects of personality right! Well so does everyone else!” Jack was nodding to himself happily.

“When do I act like a Hufflepuff?” Draco asked curiously. “No one has ever told me that before.”

“Oh, lots of times” Jack chirped, but didn’t elaborate further.

Draco glared at him, “Okay fine, so what? You think we are sorted too early?” he asked.

“No! The houses shouldn’t categorise personalities! Like, I have a friend in Slytherin, he’s nice and helpful and he doesn’t join in with the bullying the rest of his house does, and yet he’s a Slytherin and everyone’s against him! I FIND it to be very mean!!”

Draco sighed, “Yeah well that’s how things are” he said.

“Hey, isn’t that your boyfriend” Jack said, Draco looked up.

“...Okay, first of all, Harry is soooo not my boyfriend…” he muttered _‘idiot Gryffindor is not my type’_ he ignored Jack’s giggling and walked over to the golden trio.

“Moste Potente Potions?” Madam Pince asked suspiciously, as she tried to wrestle a note from Hermione.

“I was just wondering if I could keep it,” Hermione said, she sounded upset.

“Oh, come on,” said Ron, wrenching it from her grasp and thrusting it at Madam Pince. “We’ll get you another autograph. Lockhart’ll sign anything if it stands still long enough.”

“Really Hermione. I thought you had higher standards” Draco said.

“Draco, we were looking for you!” Harry said loudly, Draco ignored Jack’s laughter behind him and gave Harry a curious look.

“Well you found me” he said.

Madam Pince returned with a large, moldy-looking book. Hermione put it into her bag and they left, Harry dragged Draco out of the library with them and into a nearby bathroom.

“Does someone want to tell me why you just dragged me into Moaning Myrtle's bathroom?” he asked, ‘ _because seriously what are they planning and why are they planning it in a bathroom?’_

“I agree Hermione, anyone could walk in!” Ron complained.

“Oh please, it’s not like anyone comes in here” Hermione replied, pulling the book out of her bag and starting to flick through it, a loud wailing from Myrtle backed her answer.

“We’re going to brew the polyjuice potion! Do you want to help?” Harry asked,

“Mate, don’t just tell him! What if he tells the teachers” Ron complained.

“Why, pray tell, do you want to brew the polyjuice potion?” Draco facepalmed, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to hear the answer.

“We are going to use it to sneak into the Slytherin dorms and question Blaise Zabini on the heir of Slytherin” Harry looked proud of his plan, Draco wanted to smack him.

“Idiots” he said… “What makes you think Blaise knows anything?”

“Well… he and Pansy seemed pretty happy about the writing on the wall, and they’re Slytherins. Heir of Slytherin. It just makes sense” said Ron.

Draco sighed, “do you even know how to brew polyjuice potion?” he asked. ‘ _Wait a minute… did they do this last time?!?’_

“We do now” Hermione said. “Here it is,” said Hermione excitedly as she found the page headed ‘The Polyjuice Potion’ and held it up from them to see.

“These pictures don’t fill me with confidence” whined Ron. The illustrations on the page did look quite gruesome.

“It’s just people half way through transformation. Nothing to worry about” Hermione replied easily. “Anyway, this is the most complicated potion I’ve ever seen,” she continued, scanning along the recipe with her finger.

Draco snorted, “oh please I could brew it in my sleep” Draco muttered. Hermione glared at him. Sure, it was harder to make than some other potions, but he’d brewed it so many times he probably could brew it in his sleep.

Hermione huffed, “I doubt it, now let’s see, lacewing flies, leeches, fluxweed, and knotgrass, well, they’re easy enough, they’re in the student store cupboard, we can help ourselves... Oooh, but powdered horn of a bicorn, I don’t know where we’re going to get that, shredded skin of a boomslang... that’ll be tricky, too. Oh and of course a bit of whoever we want to change into.”

_‘The boomslang I have upstairs in my room...’_ Draco thought, although the horn of bicorn would be hard, Severus had one in his room but he hoped they weren’t stupid enough to try and steal it. Snape would literally skewer them.

“Excuse me?” said Ron sharply. “What d’you mean, a bit of whoever we’re changing into? I’m drinking nothing with Crabbe’s toenails in it —”

“We don’t have to worry about that yet, though, because we add those bits last...” said Hermione without looking up.

Ron looked speechless and turned to Draco, “is she serious?” he asked.

Draco shrugged “toenails would work I guess” he said smirking at Ron’s face.

Harry ignored Ron’s distraught face and looked at the page, “this isn’t a good idea, do you even realise how much we’re going to have to steal, Hermione? I mean shredded skin of a boomslang, that’s definitely not in the students’ cupboard. What’re we going to do, break into Snape’s private stores?” Harry said.

Draco felt slightly proud. _‘He’s finally learning something!_ ’

Hermione shut the book with a snap. “Well, if you two are going to chicken out now, even after we pulled Draco in to help us too, then fine” she said staring bright eyed at Ron and Harry. “After all I don’t want to break the rules anyway. But I think threatening Muggle-borns is far worse than brewing a difficult potion-”

“Not difficult” Draco muttered.

She glared at him.” But if you really don’t want to find out what Blaise is up to, I’ll go straight to Madam Pince now and hand the book back in.”

“I never thought I’d see the day when you’d be persuading us to break rules,” said Ron. “All right, we’ll do it. But not toenails, okay?”

Hermione looked happier and went back to reading the recipe.

“I don’t think you’re going to find out anything useful, particularly from Zabini, but I’ll help you make the potion” Draco said, he missed being able to brew whatever he liked.

He couldn’t make stuff like polyjuice potion in his room in case one of the other students tripped over the cauldron and ruined it… besides he wasn’t technically allowed to brew potions in his room and Professor Flitwick might notice if he made something like the polyjuice potion...

“How long will it take to make, anyway?” asked Harry.

“Well, since the fluxweed has got to be picked at the full moon and the lacewings have got to be stewed for twenty-one days . . . I’d say it’d be ready in about a month, if we can get all the ingredients.”

“A month?” said Ron. “Zabini could have attacked half the Muggle-borns in the school by then!” Hermione’s eyes narrowed dangerously again, and he added swiftly, “But it’s the best plan we’ve got, so full steam ahead, I say.” Ron muttered to Harry, “It’ll be a lot less hassle if you can just knock Blaise off his broom tomorrow.”

Oh yeah… quidditch is tomorrow, damn he really needed to pay more attention to these things...

“I could send Hedwig to Diagon Alley for ingredients? But she is still kind of angry with me after getting bashed around in the car on the way here” Harry said sheepishly.

“I have most those ingredients upstairs, the only real issue would be the bicorn horn, they aren’t a common ingredient in recipes so if we ask a teacher they will get suspicious.” Draco said, mostly talking to himself. “If you have everything ready by the time the lacewings are fully stewed then you can easily do it in 22 or 23 days, but then perhaps it would be better to wait until a time that you can do it without getting caught” he glanced at them. Harry was beaming.

“What do you mean you HAVE the potions ingredients?” Hermione demanded.

“I have a lot of potions ingredients, don’t judge me” Draco defended himself huffily. _‘They were gifts anyway’_ he thought.

“Anyway, since we are here I want to look at the writing on the wall again” he said, walking out of the bathroom. He had to take advantage because Filch wasn’t around at the moment.

Harry followed him out.

“What are you looking for?” he asked.

“Anything” replied Draco. He looked at the writing. The teachers couldn’t seem to get rid of it. And if Dumbledore couldn’t get rid of something it had to be really powerful magic.

“It couldn’t be a student doing this” he mused. “And I doubt a monster knows how to write...”

Harry looked confused. “Well the heir of Slytherin probably did the writing and the monster just did the attacking” he said.

“Sure… but how did no one notice the heir writing it and how did the monster get here? Unless it’s invisible…” he said. now that could be interesting.  

“S-so, I mean, you don’t think it’s-”

“Oi mate,” said Ron, leaving the bathroom. “Hermione wants to know if Malfoy can help us get a bigger cauldron to brew with” he said staring at Draco pointedly.

Draco smiled, “sure I’ve got loads” he said still staring at the writing. What kind of blood was it written with anyway?

He sighed turning away, he wasn’t going to find out anymore... unless he started using diagnosing spells…which weren’t taught until at least third year, so he probably shouldn’t in case someone caught him and started asking why.

“Anyway, I’m sure Hermione can take care of the potion well enough, just don’t get yourselves in trouble” Draco said. _‘Or at least don’t get expelled.’_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to make this chapter longer but I couldn't work out how so I might edit in more later? <. >


	6. Rogue Bludgers and House Elves

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I got distracted by Steven Universe so I forgot to update on the weekend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know if there are any mistakes.

**Chapter 6**

_‘You know what, you can go ahead and get expelled, I’ve changed my mind’_ Draco thought, _‘just whatever you do, don’t get yourself killed by a bludger._ ’

The Quidditch game quickly took a turn for the worst as Harry got a rogue bludger chasing after him, he managed to avoid it for quarter of the game and it even hit some of the other team off their brooms as Harry swerved to avoid and score goals. But in the end his luck ran out and they all saw him hit the ground hard as the bludger hit the back of his broom. Gryffindor managed to win the game and the team flew down to the pitch to check on Harry.

Along with most of the people in the stands.

“Alright there Harry? That was a hell of a fall” said Ron.

“I think my arms broken” said Harry, wincing as he sat up.

 “Oh, no, not you,” Draco moaned. Lockhart had walked up to them and crouched down next to Harry.

Lockhart sent him a harsh look and said, “not to worry, Harry. I’m about to fix your arm.”

“No!” replied Harry. “I’ll keep it like this, thanks...”

Draco would want the same if Lockhart was pointing a wand at him, he heard a familiar clicking noise nearby and glanced at Colin to his left.

Harry groaned loudly as he seemed to notice too, “I don’t want a photo of this, Colin,” he said loudly.

“Hey Colin, did you get any photos of Blaise face-planting the grass?” Draco asked.

“Yeah” Colin nodded happily.

“I’ll buy them from you” Draco said, Colin looked pleased with himself.

Maybe taking photos of everything all the time wasn’t as stupid as he initially thought. While chasing after Harry, who had the quaffle, Blaise had flown too close to the ground and got thrown off his broom quite magnificently.

“Lie back, Harry,” said Lockhart soothingly. “It’s a simple charm I’ve used countless times —”

“Why can’t I just go to the hospital wing?” whimpered Harry as he tried to get his arm out of Lockhart’s grip.

“He should really, Professor,” said Wood, who was grinning widely even though his chaser was injured. “Nice play Harry, especially those last two goals, your best yet, I’d say…”

“Stand back,” said Lockhart, who was rolling up his jade-green sleeves.

“No, don’t.” said Harry weakly, but Lockhart was twirling his wand and a second later had directed it straight at Harry’s arm. Draco facepalmed, _‘he fucking did the spell wrong.’_

The moment Lockhart’s wand touched Harry’s arm it went all limp and rubbery. Colin began clicking away madly.

“Ah,” said Lockhart. “Yes. Well, that can sometimes happen. But the point is, the bones are no longer broken. That’s the thing to bear in mind.”

“I’ve never seen that happen before” sniped Draco.

I assure you it happens all the time,” continued Lockhart. “So, Harry, just toddle up to the hospital wing, Mr. Malfoy would you escort him? And Madam Pomfrey will be able to… err… tidy you up a bit.”

Draco helped the now boneless armed Harry to stand up and walked with him to the hospital wing.

Ron and Hermione tagged along of course.

“My arm looks gross” said Harry.

“It does” agreed Draco.

Harry glared at him.

They entered the medical wing and Hermione went to find Madam Pomfrey while Harry sat on a bed with a sigh.

Needless to say, Madam Pomphrey wasn’t pleased.

“You should have come straight to me!” she raged, crossing the room and scooping up a bunch of different potions. “I can mend bones in a second — but growing them back —”

“Please tell me you’ll be able to” said Harry desperately.

“Oh, I’ll be able to, certainly, but it will be painful,” said Madam Pomfrey grimly, throwing Harry a pair of pyjamas. “You’ll have to stay the night...”

Hermione and Draco waited outside the curtain around Harry’s bed while Ron helped him into his pyjamas.

“How can you stick up for Lockhart now, Hermione, eh?” Ron called through the curtain, “If Harry had wanted deboning he would have asked.”

“Anyone can make a mistake,” said Hermione. “And it doesn’t hurt anymore, does it, Harry?”

“No,” sighed Harry, getting into bed. “But it doesn’t do anything else either.”

Madam Pomfrey came over holding a large bottle of Skele-Gro. “You’re in for a rough night,” she said, “regrowing bones is a nasty business.”

“I want to know how Blaise fixed that bludger,” said Hermione darkly, Ron opened the curtains around the bed and Harry was now fully dressed in pyjamas.

“We can add that to the list of questions we’ll ask him when we’ve taken the Polyjuice Potion,” said Harry, sinking back onto his pillows. “I hope it tastes better than this stuff...” Draco rolled his eyes, they were so loud it was no wonder they were terrible at keeping secrets from the rest of the school.

“If it’s got bits of Slytherins in it? You’ve got to be joking,” said Ron. The door of the hospital wing burst open and the Gryffindor team swarmed into the hospital wing.

“Unbelievable flying, Harry,” said George. “I’ve just seen Marcus Flint yelling at Blaise. Something about not scoring a single point the whole game. Blaise didn’t seem very happy.”

They had brought cakes, sweets, and bottles of pumpkin juice; they gathered around Harry’s bed and were just getting started on what promised to be a good party when Madam Pomfrey came storming over, shouting,

“This boy needs rest, he’s got thirty-three bones to regrow! Out! OUT!”

“We’ll come visit tomorrow” Ron shouted back to Harry as they were all shooed out the door.

“Aw, I was looking forward to a party, we won after all” said George.

“Well I’m sure everyone is celebrating in the Great Hall,” said Oliver Wood, “it’s just a shame that Harry can’t come.”

It was already time for dinner so they walked together to the Great Hall, and Draco ended up sitting with the Gryffindors. Mostly due to George and Fred insisting he sit next to them.

A few of the other Gryffindors were curious as to why he was there, but no one tried to make him leave, and the Quidditch team were treating him like he was supposed to be there.  

Although Percy looked a little annoyed about it.

However, the Slytherins were NOT happy at all and tried complaining to the teachers that the houses shouldn’t be sitting together.  

But when Dumbledore saw him he just started chuckling to himself and offered them all some treacle tart. Not to mention, Severus was giving him a look of ‘Are you fucking with me right now?’ the whole way through dinner.

Then, Jack walked over and sat down next to him and started sharing his thoughts on friendship with everyone... It was a rather odd evening for him… but it was fun, even with the Slytherins trying to throw things at him when the teachers weren’t looking.

…Fred and George were doing it back to the Slytherins too… until they were noticed by Professor McGonagall.

He stood up as Fred and George got shouted at, might as well leave before someone caused more trouble. He waved goodbye to the Gryffindor table that now somehow consisted of several Hufflepuffs and one or two Ravenclaws.

_‘If the houses can sit with each other why do we have separate tables to begin with’_ Draco sighed.

The Raven spoke to him as he approached the common room door.

**Good Evening**

“Is there are way you can let me in without giving me a riddle,” sighed Draco

**Where is the fun in that?**

He groaned, “just get on with it then.”

**You may find me difficult,**

**Perhaps a little cruel,**

**But my ambitions have no end,**

**And if you mess with my friend,**

**You can bet we will duel.**

 

“… do you mean Salazar Slytherin?” he asked.

The doors opened.

“... I think you’re breaking, Slytherins don’t help their friends” Draco said to the Raven statue.

**You help yours**

The Raven replied.

Draco glared at it for a while before walking to his room.

-

Then everything turned to hell again.

Dobby was sitting on his bed as if it was totally normal for him to be there.

Terry was the only other Ravenclaw in the room and he was looking very curious, Draco just shrugged and closed the curtains around his bed, quickly casting a silencing charm.

“Mr. Draco sir, I’ve failed you, Mr. Harry Potter came back to school sir, he is not safe! Dobby thought when he missed the train! He-”

Draco put a hand up to stop him, “Dobby how do you know they missed the train?” The house elf blinked at him slowly. “...Dobby” he growled.

“Well, Mr. Draco said to keep Mr. Harry Potter safe sir and Dobby thought-”

“That you’d keep him safe by keeping him out?” he asked letting out a sigh… Why did house elves have to be so difficult sometimes…

“I told you to tell me if there was a problem” Draco said.

“Well, yes sir, but Dobby thought his bludger would be enough to convince Mr. Harry Potter to go home”

Draco face palmed for what felt like the millionth time that day. “Dobby, just... don’t worry about Harry he will be fine… probably. Just keep an eye on my father.” The house elf fidgeted quietly.

“Dobby?” Draco said sternly.

“Well sir Dobby doesn’t want to speak ill of his master but-”

“What. Has. He. Done?” Draco asked through gritted teeth.

“The reason why Mr Harry Potter can’t be here, the attacks on the school, they all link to Master Malfoy sir” the house elf whispered sadly.

“What? What do you mean?” Draco asked, how could Lucius be involved he wasn’t even here.

And then Dobby was hitting himself with a lamp, “can’t, can’t bad Dobby bad, Dobby has said too much” Dobby wailed.

‘ _Where the fuck did he get this lamp from’_ Draco thought, snatching the lamp off of him. “Dobby stop it, it’s fine just leave everything to me okay?” he said.

The house elf blinked sadly and nodded.

“Go back to the manor and tell me if things get any worse… please actually tell me and don’t try and send more bludgers after anyone… And please don’t try and hurt yourself again, it doesn’t help things” he sighed. “I’ll keep Harry safe at school”

“But sir, who will keep you safe” Dobby whined then disappeared with a loud crack and left Draco alone with his thoughts…

_‘...uggggghhhhhh.’_

He would have to apologise to Harry, after all it was kind of his fault a bludger went crazy and almost maimed him… he sighed again.

Would it be better to wait until morning to go and talk to Harry? Or…

He opened the curtains to his bed again… it was still early, but not early enough to go visit the hospital wing without getting in trouble.

Terry was still looking at him too.

It would be better to go and visit him later tonight instead… he was still a ‘pureblood’ so there was a low chance he would get petrified. Besides, Harry was literally in the hospital wing because of Dobby and that stupid bludger, the least he could do was go and apologise.

He started by trying to give Terry an excuse for a house elf appearing on his bed…

\--

He snuck out of bed around midnight and went down to the hospital wing.

‘ _There’s like a 40% chance I’m going to get petrified’_ Draco sighed, luckily, he knew several secret passages that the Weasley twins had shown him last year. So, he managed to avoid Filch quite easily.

“Harry” he whispered, quietly opening the door to the hospital wing and walking in, Madam Pomphrey was already in her office and the lights were off, signifying that she was already asleep.

“Draco, what are you doing here?” Harry asked, sitting up in bed as he walked over, he didn’t look upset, just surprised to see him.

_‘Fuck! No wonder people think he’s my fucking boyfriend_ ’ Draco thought.

“Just came to check on you, how are you?” he asked, he didn’t know how he was going to say, ‘my house elf tried to kill you but no hard feelings.’

“Alright I guess, lots of pain in my arm but I think that’s the bones growing” he said, Draco nodded, skele-gro was painful but he would be fine by morning. But Harry looked strangely sad. Before Draco could speak Harry started talking.

“Hey Draco” he said, “You know with the whole heir of Slytherin thing going around, you don’t think it’s me, right?” he asked.

Draco was mildly surprised, was Harry really so bothered by the rumours? Of course, he had heard them all, actually years ago he had been really annoyed about it, I mean it was pretty obvious Harry wasn’t the heir of Slytherin. But people were avoiding Harry a lot these days… except the twins who were parading him around with glee, maybe that was bothering him.

“Of course, it isn’t you, you're the least Slytherin person I can think of” he said.

He was met with silence.

“What?” he asked.

“Well… you know. The sorting hat wanted to put me in Slytherin” Harry admitted.

‘ _hmm, I guess the sorting hat knew he would become a damn powerful wizard’_ Draco mused.

“So… maybe I really am evil… like the Slytherins” Harry whispered quietly.

Draco tried not to show his annoyance. “Harry. Slytherins aren’t evil” Harry gave him a look.

“Okay, fine. There are a lot of rude and cruel people in Slytherin but you can’t think of a house as just ‘some’ of the people in it. That’s like saying, everyone from America eats McDonald’s or everyone from England drinks tea, it simply isn’t true” he said.

Harry looked slightly confused. Draco sighed.

“It’s just a stereotype Harry. Slytherins are said to be ambitious and cunning and yes there have been bad wizards from Slytherin house but you know there have also been bad wizards from other houses. Quirrell was a Ravenclaw. And so was Lockhart!... which I still can’t believe ‘cause he is so bloody stupid” he said.

“-and it’s been said that even some Gryffindors followed Voldemort during the war. So, you can’t judge each individual person by what house they're in.... Like, I call you Gryffindors idiots all the time, but I know that Hermione isn’t an idiot and I know that not everyone in your house runs blindly into danger… just, you and Ron do… all the damn time. But you’re my friends... so I’ll help you even through the crap you get yourselves into” he muttered.

“You said Voldemort’s name” Harry said looking taken aback

“… did you listen to anything I was saying” Draco said smacking Harry on his good arm lightly.

“It doesn’t matter to me whether the hat wanted to put you in Slytherin. I mean obviously it wanted to put me in Slytherin! If I wasn’t so ‘smart’ it probably would have” Draco said, and if the sorting hat didn’t have an annoying sense of humour... “What matters is that you are a good person Harry.”

“Thanks Draco” Harry said smiling, “but I don’t think you would have fit in with Slytherin”

“Yeah, well neither would you…” Draco huffed. He used to fit in with Slytherin very well thank you very much.

“So, um did you really come down here just to ask how I was?” Harry asked.

“Oh, right…I need to tell you I’m sorry... about my house elf, Dobby” Draco said.

“Huh!” Harry gasped. “Wait, your house elf?”

“… he’s kind of… my fathers, I mean technically I own a lot of house elves and... well, y’know I have been thinking about ways to free them in the future… although I would probably get disowned for it but… Well, uh, I told Dobby to make sure you weren’t in danger and he took that… way, waaaay too far” Draco winced. “That rogue bludger was Dobby trying to get you sent home from school… I’m sorry”

Harry winced too, “I wondered how Dobby got in my room this summer, but seriously a rogue bludger! Did he want me sent home in pieces?”

“Ah… he was there in the summer too? God damnit” Draco muttered, he would have to monitor Dobby more the next time he told him to do something... Dobby’s intentions were pure but he did take things a little too far.

“Yeah well... just tell him never to save my life again” Harry said, he didn’t look happy but he also wasn’t getting angry so Draco hoped that meant he would get over it.

They talked about classes for a while but Draco left again before Madam Pomfrey woke up to check on Harry or something.

What he didn’t expect was to run straight into Colin Creevey trying to sneak some grapes to Harry in the middle of the fucking night, he instead pulled the boy all the way back to the Gryffindor common room before the idiot got himself killed.

_____________________

Back in the hospital wing Harry shifted on his bed, he wasn’t particularly mad at Draco for what Dobby did… although he didn’t appreciate getting attacked by rogue bludgers.

Draco had apologised at least and hopefully that meant Dobby was going to leave him alone now. Besides, after Dobby had first gone to see him in his bedroom back on Privet Drive he and Ron had thought maybe it was Zabini playing a joke on him or something.

But thinking back on it, Dobby had said his master knew he was at Harry’s house and that he had heard tales of Harry’s greatness… he flushed a little. He didn’t really know what great tales there were to tell about him really, but at least he knew Draco was his friend.

Recently, with everyone in the hallways running away in fear every time he so much as looked at them as he walked past, he was starting to feel annoyed.

Why did people think he would attack someone? Okay fair enough, he, Ron and Hermione were in the wrong place at the wrong time with Mrs. Norris getting petrified. But they weren’t getting any heat for it, only he was.

At least most of the Gryffindors from their year were on his side, mainly because he knew them well and spoke to them all the time so they knew he wasn’t the type of person to attack someone.

But both the older Gryffindors and the first years eyed him carefully even when he was in the common room. It made him get up and finish his homework alone in his room most days to avoid the stares. It was like the start of first year all over again. Everyone was just staring at him all the time. The other houses in particular seemed to think he had turned evil or something.

But Draco never even acknowledged the rumours going around. As if the very idea of Harry being the heir of Slytherin was ridiculous. And that made him inexplicably happy.

Of course, Ron and Hermione were also on his side, but then again, they were there with him at Nearly Headless Nick’s Deathday party and after when he heard the voice. Draco didn’t know anything about the voice, but he still seemed to fully trust him.

Actually, it didn’t make sense to him, he had only met Lucius Malfoy once, at the start of this year in knockturn alley, but he could tell immediately that Draco was completely different to his father. Although, they did look alike.

Ron was always commenting on how evil Draco’s family was too... Although he generally said, ‘Draco’s family’ and not ‘Draco.’ Harry smiled to himself, no matter how much Ron wanted to deny it, he really did like Draco more than he let on.

Although, if Draco had been in Slytherin Ron would have probably called him the heir of Slytherin instead of Zabini.

There was a loud crack, disturbing Harry from his thoughts and he shot up in bed.

Dobby was stood there, staring up at him with teary eyes through the darkness.

“Mr. Harry Potter came back to school,” he whispered, his voice filled with misery. “Dobby warned Mr. Harry Potter. Ah sir, why didn’t you heed Dobby? Why didn’t Harry Potter go back home when he missed the train?”

Harry heaved himself up on his pillows, ignoring the prickling pain in his arm.

“Dobby I know you belong to the Malfoy family and… wait a minute. You made us miss the train too! Me and Ron were almost expelled for that!” he said fiercely. “I swear Dobby if I had bones in my arm I might strangle you.”

Dobby just smiled weakly at him. “Dobby is used to death threats, sir. Dobby gets them five times a day at home.” He blew his nose on a corner of the filthy pillowcase he wore, looking so pathetic that Harry felt his anger ebb away in spite of himself.

But… five times a day… surely Draco wouldn’t use death threats with Dobby, which meant … it was Draco’s parents.

“Why d’you wear that thing, Dobby?” he asked curiously.

“This, sir?” said Dobby, plucking at the filthy pillowcase. “’Tis a mark of the house-elf’s enslavement, sir. Dobby can only be freed if his masters present him with clothes, sir. Master Malfoy is careful not to pass Dobby even a sock, sir, for then he would be free to leave their house forever.”

Dobby mopped his bulging eyes and said, “Master Draco spoke to Dobby and told Dobby to stop trying to make Mr. Harry Potter go home but Dobby is worried sir! Dobby wants to save Harry Potter’s life!”

“Oh, is that why you sent a bludger after me?” said Harry angrily. “I don’t suppose you’re going to tell me why you wanted to maim me?”

“Ah, not maim sir, never maim…Mr. Harry Potter means a lot to us, to the lowly and enslaved, we dregs of the magical world! Dobby remembers how it was when He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was at the height of his powers, sir! We house-elves were treated like vermin, sir! Of course, Dobby is still treated like that, sir,” he admitted, drying his face on the pillowcase.

“But mostly, sir, life has improved for my kind after the Dark Lord’s power was broken, Mr. Harry Potter was a beacon of hope... And now, at Hogwarts, terrible things are happening already, and Dobby is worried sir, worried for not only Mr. Harry Potter, sir, but also the young Master Draco, there is great danger in the very walls of Hogwarts, if the two of you stay here now that history is to repeat itself, now that the Chamber of Secrets is open once more —”

Harry gaped and Dobby froze, horror-struck. Then grabbed Harry’s water jug from his bedside table and cracked it over his own head, toppling out of sight. Harry could hear mutterings of, “Bad Dobby, very bad Dobby . . .”

“So, there is a Chamber of Secrets?” Harry whispered. “And — did you say it’s been opened before? Tell me, Dobby!” He seized the elf’s bony wrist as Dobby’s hand inched toward the water jug. “But I’m not Muggle-born, and neither is Draco, how can we be in danger from the Chamber? Does Draco know?”

“Ah, sir, ask no more, ask no more of poor Dobby,” stammered the elf, his eyes huge in the dark. “Go home, Harry Potter, go home. Harry Potter must not meddle in this, sir, ’tis too dangerous”

“Dobby, is it your Master? Draco’s father?” Harry said, keeping a firm hold on Dobby’s wrist to stop him from hitting himself with the water jug again. “Did he open it last time? Who opened it this time?”

“Dobby must go!” breathed the elf, terrified. There was a loud crack, and Harry’s fist was suddenly clenched on thin air.

He slumped back into bed, _‘I knew it!_ ’ he thought, _‘Draco’s father is evil! He must have something to do with this. I wonder if Draco knows how evil his father is, he must have sent Dobby to protect me from him! But he can’t know about the chamber or anything or surely, he would have told me about it, right…?_ ’

Harry thought about it, he’d never seen Draco react to the Slytherins bullying him, he never confronted them or anything. In fact, he seemed to just ignore everything people said about him, he needed to stand up for himself more!

‘ _His stupid father talks to him like he’s trash too! I hate it!_ ’ he thought bitterly.

There were footsteps coming down the passageway outside and Harry closed his eyes as they drew nearer. He would have to talk to Ron and Hermione about this, maybe they could team up and protect Draco from his scumbag of a father.

He heard the door open and there were more footsteps walking past his bed, he opened one eye a little and saw Dumbledore wearing a woolly dressing gown and Professor McGonagall in her usual robes heaving a statue onto the bed opposite his.

“Get Madam Pomfrey,” whispered Dumbledore.

He closed his eyes again and pretended to be asleep, he hoped they hadn’t passed Draco on the way or he would have probably got detention.

He heard a door opening and a sharp intake of breath.

“What happened?” Madam Pomfrey whispered.

“Another attack,” said McGonagall, “Headmaster Dumbledore found her on the stairs.”

Slowly and carefully, Harry raised himself a few inches and opened one eye to have a look at the statue on the bed. _‘Found her?_ _Another attack? Now?’_ he thought.

It was a Hufflepuff girl, he recognised her as Hannah Abbot. Her eyes were wide with fear. “Petrified?” whispered Madam Pomfrey.

“Yes,” said McGonagall. “From the route she was taking, we think she may have been sneaking off to the kitchens, the house elves there have told me she likes to talk to them when she is feeling upset. But I shudder to think . . . If Albus hadn’t been on the way downstairs for hot chocolate… who knows what might have happened.” The three of them stared down at Hannah.

Harry closed his eyes again and listened to them whisper amongst each other, he peeked at them and the petrified Hannah every now and then.

“What does this mean, Albus?” McGonagall asked urgently.

“It means,” said Dumbledore, “that the Chamber of Secrets is indeed open again.”

“But, Albus . . . surely . . . who?” asked McGonagall

“The question is not who,” said Dumbledore, his eyes on Hannah. “The question is, how...”

And from what Harry could see of Professor McGonagall’s shadowy face, she didn’t understand this any better than he did.

Harry thought desperately, if Lucius Malfoy DID open the chamber before then… would that mean it was Draco this time? But no! There was no way in hell it was Draco opening it now.

Draco wasn’t that kind of a person, besides he couldn’t be the heir of Slytherin he wasn’t even IN Slytherin! They would have to wait for the polyjuice potion, surely it was Zabini or one of his cronies trying to rid the school of Muggleborns.

He just had to wait until tomorrow, Hermione and Ron needed to know about the chamber.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like writing the different perspectives between Draco and Harry ^-^ Although Draco tends to over think everything, Harry is just full of Gryffindorish thoughts, and he really doesn't understand the way Draco acts at all.


	7. Duelling

  **Chapter 7**

 

News of Hannah Abbott getting petrified the same night Harry was in the hospital wing spread around the school pretty fast, and Jack was spending a lot of time in the hospital wing by her bedside.

“Mr. Malfoy, may I have a word” said Professor Flitwick.

Charms class was just ending. He waved goodbye to Terry as he put his books away.

The classroom cleared and everything became silent other than the sound of Professor Flitwick piling his books up with magic.

“Mr Davis informed me you snuck out last night” said Professor Flitwick.

“Oh, did he” Draco sighed.

“Normally I know some students sneak out to the kitchens or the older students even sneak off to Hogsmead sometimes, but I think you know why I have to ask you about last night...” said Professor Flitwick calmly.

“I was just talking to Harry in the hospital wing” Draco sighed… Of course, that asshole Davis would take the chance to get him in trouble… but how had he found out?

It was a good thing he always heavily warded the things in his room, he didn’t want Davis snooping around, especially in case he found something a 2nd year shouldn’t have.

Professor Flitwick just hummed and he sent his books to float up to his office.

It wasn’t a surprise that a teacher would be suspicious that he was out the same night of an attack.

To be honest, he was surprised that Harry didn’t seem to be suspicious of him. Any normal person would assume he was part of it. But Harry seemed to be acting even more protective than ever… Even challenging everyone that said something bad about Draco… which was really weird to be honest.

“You’ll have detention with me at a later date for being out after hours, and of course a warning to not do so again, but I think we can rule out mysterious chamber monster” said Professor Flitwick calmly.

“You aren’t suspicious of me?” asked Draco.

“I think I would know if a member of my house was awful enough to do something like this Mr Malfoy, you may be smarter than the others in your year but you certainly aren’t malicious” replied Professor Flitwick.

“Thank you, Professor” he said. Now if only people could have that kind of faith in Harry… Maybe the teachers did but the students certainly didn’t.

“Oh, but be careful of the upper years, they don’t seem to like you much” smiled Professor Flitwick waving him off.

He walked out into the courtyard, it didn’t really matter if the upper years didn’t like him. He never actually talked to them anyway.

“Hi Draco” said Neville, his voice sounded hoarse.

It seemed Ginny had taken his advice and started hanging out with Neville.

“Hello, Neville, Ginny” said Draco

She nodded at him but didn’t say anything.

“What’s that?” asked Draco pointing at the large, evil-smelling green onion, there was also a pointed purple crystal, and a rotting newt tail.

“Neville bought them thinking they would defend him somehow” sighed Ginny.

“You two are purebloods though, surely you aren’t in danger” Draco said.

“I told him that but he insisted” Ginny sighed looking at Neville.

“...well… I… I don’t know” Neville mumbled, he looked sickly and Draco was worried that the latest attack was really bothering him. He had been friends with Hannah after all. Ginny looked worried too, she kept glancing at Neville.

The rumours around the Chamber just kept spreading.

Not to mention, Blaise was enjoying spreading his own rumours around the school, especially the rumour that he was the heir of Slytherin. Which he started himself and then spread to as many people as he could. He was also spreading around rumours about Draco being ‘practically a squib’ as a supposed reason for why he was friends with muggleborns.

Not a lot of people really cared what Blaise said but a lot of Slytherins were starting to get rowdy now that they realised first year wasn’t a fluke and Draco really wasn’t going to be nice to them or act like them. And of course, Davis jumped on the opportunity to humiliate him and started spreading it around the upper years too.

He found it so amusing though, it was such a school thing to do, spread around rumours and gossip about people. It made him more nostalgic than anything.

But he did feel bad for Crabbe and Goyle, they were starting to get poked at for being friends with him, although no one from their year tried to bully them for it, due to their size.

Last time he ran into Harry, he also told him that they ran into Crabbe and Goyle punching a Slytherin 4th year because of something they had said about Draco. He was surprised that Crabbe and Goyle were still being his friends but apparently, they had asked Hermione (in a nice-ish way), if she would help them find a book in the library. Draco didn’t even realise they knew where the library was, but the golden trio seemed to be bonding with Crabbe and Goyle over mutual hatred of Zabini.

Draco smiled, that wasn’t going to stop them from stealing Crabbe and Goyle’s hair for a polyjuice potion in a few weeks though.

 

-

He had been sat in his usual hiding place in the library when he caught the golden trio arguing about him, apparently Harry had been getting into more arguments with people when they were making fun of Draco’s magic.

“Well, have you ever seen him fight?”  Ron said huffily, they seemed to be looking for school books so at least they were studying.

“No, but he uses spells all the time to help us!!” Harry argued.

“We’ve seen him use wordless magic before too, I’m sure he is better than you think Ron, he just isn’t the type of person to attack others. So, we don’t see him use offensive spells.” Hermione had said smiling with an armful of books, Draco knew that Hermione wasn’t bothered by the rumours.

She was certainly one of the most level headed of their year.

Then again. he wasn’t bothered by the rumours either, it was a pretty stupid thing to talk about anyway. Actually, he was quite glad it was taking the heat off of Neville and his slightly clumsy spells that most people made fun of. He had been looking particularly sickly lately.

Later that day he caught Blaise being lead to the hospital wing with a swollen nose, and of course he knew Harry must have something to do with it. He immediately wandered over to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. The polyjuice potion was stewing away quietly but the golden trio weren’t there yet.

“Myrtle are you in here?” Draco asked, the ghost rose out of the sink weepily.

“What do you want?” She asked, “come to make fun of my glasses?”

“Of course, not Myrtle, I was just wondering if Hermione was in here earlier?” he said

Myrtle huffed, “they haven’t been in here since yesterday, and look they are ruining my favourite toilet with this awful cauldron” she sobbed.  

“Oh” Draco said, “... I could move it to a different toilet if you want?” he asked, Myrtle looked at him for a while but shook her head before fading through the floor, she moved around with just her head through the floor for a while before disappearing, probably into a toilet.

Harry, Hermione and Ron burst in happily and started throwing around potions ingredients.

“I see you raided Professor Snape then” Draco said with a disapproving look.

Hermione looked sheepish “It’ll be ready in two weeks, we can get it done over Christmas so we won’t be caught by the teachers” she said.

“Snape can’t prove anything” said Ron reassuringly to Harry. “What can he do?”

“Knowing my Godfather, it will be something bad, he doesn’t like people touching his potions things” said Draco, advising Hermione on the correct way to stir as the potion frothed and bubbled.

Snape wasn’t discriminating against the Gryffindors as much as he used too. But that would change quickly when he discovered they raided his potions supplies. If he hadn’t hated the golden trio before now, he was certainly going to.

-

Ughhh, Draco reaaaally didn’t want to go to the duelling club. He had detention straight after too but Terry had pulled him along to it.

He knew. He just fucking knew that Lockhart was going to run it, he may not remember much from 2nd year but Lockhart was hard to remove from your memory.

He saw the golden trio walk in and thankfully Severus was at the back of the room too.

Ever since Draco told Severus the truth about coming back in time last year the two of them had been meeting up every month or two, although he couldn’t really tell him about the future he sometimes told him things that didn’t really affect either of them. Like advances in potion making, he also tried to make him hate Harry slightly less, but Harry wasn’t making that easy...

In addition, Severus continuously forced more and more books on him, everyone thought he kept buying books from random places and that’s why he constantly had more but really it was Professor Snape.

It was a good thing he was a Ravenclaw, it meant he could get away with reading books about random crap without anyone wondering why. He also kept Severus up to date on animagi business and his ongoing research.

The other Ravenclaw’s in his room knew about him trying to imbue things with magic, mainly because he’d made several cauldrons explode in the dorms a few weeks ago and they helped him try to convince Professor Flitwick that Michael’s owl had got loose and destroyed everything… which wasn’t entirely a lie because the damn owl had done that multiple times.

Lockhart waved an arm for silence and called, “Gather round, gather round! Can everyone see me? Can you all hear me? Excellent! Now, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little duelling club, to train you all in case you ever need to defend yourselves as I. myself have done on countless occasions — for full details, see my published works. Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape,” said Lockhart, flashing a wide smile.

“-He tells me he knows a tiny little bit about duelling himself and has sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration before we begin. Now, I don’t want any of you youngsters to worry — you’ll still have your Potions master when I’m through with him, never fear!”

Draco almost laughed at Snape’s face but decided he didn’t want to be hexed, Harry, Ron and Hermione came up next to him, it seemed they were just as put out about Lockhart as Draco was.

“What are you doing here Malfoy you don’t seem like the duelling type” Ron asked.

He and Ron usually sniped at each other, so this was friendly enough… actually he didn’t think Ron hated him as much as he acted, he mostly was just constantly suspicious of him because he was a Malfoy. Unfortunately, he had to ignore the Slytherins sneering rude comments about his apparent ‘lack of magical ability’.

Draco shrugged, “Terry pulled me in, I’d rather be reading” he said.

Lockhart did a bow, with much twirling of his hands, whereas Snape jerked his head irritably. Then they raised their wands like swords in front of them.

“As you see, we are holding our wands in the accepted combative position,” Lockhart told the silent crowd. “On the count of three, we will cast our first spells. Neither of us will be aiming to kill, of course.”

Draco didn’t bet on that, particularly because Lockhart wasn’t even holding his want in an accepted combative position he was twirling it around instead.

“One — two — three —” Both of them swung their wands above their heads and pointed them at their opponent;

Snape shouted “Expelliarmus!” There was a dazzling flash of scarlet light and Lockhart was blasted off his feet: He flew backward off the stage, smashed into the wall, and slid down it to sprawl on the floor.

Some of the girls cried out but most of the guys had evil looking grins on their faces.

Lockhart got unsteadily to his feet. His hat had fallen off and his wavy hair was standing on end.

“Well, there you have it!” he said, tottering back onto the platform. “That was a Disarming Charm and as you see, I’ve lost my wand- ah, thank you, Miss Brown -yes, an excellent idea to show them that, Professor Snape, but if you don’t mind my saying so, it was very obvious what you were about to do. If I had wanted to stop you it would have been only too easy. However, I felt it would be instructive to let them see . . .” Snape was looking murderous.

Possibly Lockhart had noticed, because he said, “Enough demonstrating! I’m going to come amongst you now and put you all into pairs. Professor Snape, if you’d like to help me —” They moved through the crowd, matching up partners.

Draco looked around, he supposed he would pair with whoever was free, he saw Snape smiling coldly. _‘Oh no’_ he thought.

“Mr. Zabini, come over here. Let’s see what you make of the famous Potter. And you, Miss Granger — you can partner Miss Bulstrode.” Blaise strutted over, smirking.

Yep… Severus must have found out they had raided his potions supplies.

“Now Mr. Malfoy” Lockhart called suddenly. “You and I could be paired together I think” he said with his ‘charming’ smile. Draco wanted to strangle him. It wasn’t a secret that Lockhart hated Draco’s guts, even after the first lesson he had constantly pointed out the wrong facts in Lockhart’s books and it seemed it was revenge time for that.

“Pah, as if Malfoy can do anything! He’ll probably just send his mudblood friends on you” Blaise shouted, a lot of angry glares were shot at him from the other houses and Professor Snape had to stop Ron from pouncing on him at the slur.

“Face your partners!” called Lockhart. “And bow!” Draco could see Harry and Zabini barely inclined their heads, not taking their eyes off each other.

“Wands at the ready!” shouted Lockhart. “When I count to three, cast your charms to disarm your opponents — only to disarm them — we don’t want any accidents — one . . . two . . . three —

_‘Oh, don’t we?’_ Draco thought spitefully. He really wasn’t in the mood for this.

He turned slightly to Lockhart who looked as though he was attempting a charm on him… all he was actually doing was brandishing his wand around like an idiot.

He calmly spoke the words for the jelly legs jinx, he didn’t shout unlike the whole rest of the room. He learned a long time ago that shouting your attack was the worst thing you could do. Unless you wanted the counter spell in your face.

Lockhart collapsed to the floor with shaking legs.

“Ah, yes well, that is a particularly good hex I suppose although I did say disarm only” he said quite loudly, a few other people looked over at them and Draco cast un-jellify. He would have loved to just leave him there though.

He turned to look at Harry and Zabini who were having a full-on fight by the side of the room, it seemed a crowd had now surrounded them.

There was movement out of the corner of his eye and Draco had honestly had enough people cursing him with his back turned to know to cast protego immediately.

Severus gave him a hard look… _‘fuck shielding spells are like 5th year_ ’ he thought. Lockhart looked slightly annoyed that he wasn’t able to hit Draco with anything.

Although, considering he had just sent a Bat-Bogey Hex at him after he had said disarm only it seemed like things were getting personal.

The way Lockhart held his wand had to be the worst he had ever seen in his life, it was no wonder half of the spells he cast were done wrong.

However, when Lockhart shouted “Confringo” loud enough for the whole room to hear Draco was done.

“Agua Eructo” he said calmly, he watched Lockhart get soaked head to toe in a jet of water. ‘ _Wait, is that spell a bit high-level?_ ’ he couldn’t decide, his magical core was pretty powerful, despite coming back in time, so sometimes his spells were stronger than they should be. Lockhart was now on the floor in a pool of water, his hat had flown clean off and it seemed like whatever makeup he was wearing had streaked down his face to give him emo mascara lines.

An eruption of laughter started and Draco realised people had actually been watching the duel, a lot of the Slytherins looked furious. Draco hoped no one noticed the high-level spells he had used because he really didn’t know anymore what counted as ‘high-level’.

Severus who had been pulling other pairs off each other walked over to Lockhart as if someone was about to die a slow and painful death.

A loud hissing sound echoed in the room, stopping everything.

Blaise had raised his wand and bellowed, “Serpensortia!” A long black snake shot out of it and started slithering forwards, it looked as though it was going to attack Harry. There were screams as everyone backed swiftly away, clearing the floor.

“Don’t move, Potter,” said Snape lazily, clearly enjoying the sight of Harry standing motionless, eye to eye with the angry snake. “I’ll get rid of it...”

“Allow me!” shouted Lockhart who had pulled himself off the floor and seemed to be trying to save himself from further embarrassment. He brandished his wand at the snake and there was a loud bang; the snake, instead of vanishing, flew ten feet into the air and fell back to the floor with a loud smack.

Enraged, hissing furiously, it slithered straight toward Justin Finch-Fletchley and raised itself again, fangs exposed, poised to strike.

_‘Maybe if you would stop trying to do spells wordlessly like a fucking imbecile you would actually cast a spell right’_ Draco thought darkly.

A loud hissing sound came from Harry and the whole room seemed to freeze.

Draco watched the snake back away after Harry spoke to it, _I wish I could talk to snakes_ , he sighed.

However, Justin looked thoroughly freaked out. “What do you think you’re playing at?” he shouted and stormed out of the hall.

Snape stepped forward, waved his wand, and the snake vanished in a small puff of black smoke.

Draco watched Ron and Hermione run forward and pull Harry out of the room.

Once they were gone Severus turned on Lockhart with all the fury of a rampaging tiger.

“What do you think you are doing casting a fire spell on a 2nd year” he hissed and pulled Lockhart from the room in the other direction. Draco was sure they wouldn’t have a Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher anymore.

 …and now I still need to go to my detention with Professor Flitwick, what was the point in this club anyway.

 


	8. Christmas Time~ Everything is Horrible.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it has been a while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ummm, warning for extremely stressed Draco and mentions of panic attack... If I need to add tags or warnings for those kinds of things please tell me because I'm useless and I really don't know.  
> I was trying to go for extreme feels but @w@ let me know if you like it or not.

**Chapter 8**

He knocked on the door and softly opened it.

“Ah Mr Malfoy come in come in” Professor Flitwick said. He was already bustling around with stacks of paper. “I heard about your duel with Lockhart already” he continued, he seemed to be trying not to laugh.

Draco huffed, the wanker had it coming to him.

“Meet your detention buddy” said Professor Flitwick gesturing to Theodore Nott who was miserably sat at the far end of the room looking rather pissed off. He glared over at Draco as he passed.  

“Now, today you two will be helping me by making a list of all the books on my bookshelf, see I thought I knew which books were on there but some keep appearing out of nowhere and I’d quite like a record, since it’s a detention though you’re not allowed to use magic.” said Professor Flitwick, the bookshelf behind him wasn’t even really a shelf, it spanned the entire back wall of the room from the ceiling to the floor.

“I’ll be in my office grading papers, so I’ll just be in and out to check on you now and then. Keep going until I stop you” he said cheerfully and bustled out of the room with an armful of paperwork.

There was parchment left around for them to write on, Draco sighed, might as well get to work. It wasn’t the worst detention he’d ever received. Much better than going into the forbidden forest, or getting stuck helping Professor Snape with potions supplies.

He got to work on the far side of the book shelf.

Theo sat glaring at him for a good 10 minutes before getting up to help. They worked in silence for a while, other than Theo’s aspirated sighs and groans of frustration.

He was obviously not pleased to be there, but Draco wasn’t sure if he was supposed to react to his annoyance or just leave him muttering to himself.

Then Theo started shooting him evil glares too.

Draco sighed.

“What is it?” he asked.

Theo growled at him.

Like, actually growled… this was going to be annoying.

“If you aren’t going to say anything I’m not going to know what your problem is” sighed Draco, “spit it out.”

Theo slammed a book down on the shelf loudly.

“My problem? MY problem?? Don’t get all high and mighty with me Malfoy” Theo snapped.

Draco blinked… high and mighty?

“Uh, that wasn’t my intention, sorry if it came off that way” he said and carried on writing down book titles.

Theo looked even more pissed off than before and started pulling books off the shelf more aggressively than needed.

“You think you’re so much better than us, getting sorted into Ravenclaw and ignoring us like we haven’t been your friend for years before Hogwarts. Then hanging out with Potter.”

He slammed a book back onto the shelf. “Not to mention that mudblood-”

“She has a name” Draco snapped, “it’s Hermione and she’s very nice.”

Theo seethed. “Nice, sure, nice… What kind of a Malfoy are you?” he muttered.

Draco paused. What kind of a Malfoy? Well he wasn’t any kind. Malfoy was just a last name, it didn’t exactly shape him as a person in any way. Then again, he was supposed to act like a pureblood so that’s probably what Theo meant.

He sighed and continued to work, to be fair, Theo had a right to be annoyed. They had been friends before Hogwarts started and he never talked to any of the Slytherins he had been friends with anymore, except Crabbe and Goyle. But that’s because for him at least, it was like, 30 fucking years ago that he had been friends with them… it was weird.

He didn’t need to look at Theo to know he was still pissed off, hopefully Professor Flitwick wouldn’t get annoyed about his dented books from how hard Theo was throwing them around.

“Okay, I get it, I’m a Malfoy and I’m in Ravenclaw. It’s not because I’m a Ravenclaw that I’ve been ignoring the Slytherins though. I just disagree with the way Slytherins do things. You don’t really see the perspective of the other houses when you’re in Slytherin but I get it now, I think. When you’re in Slytherin the whole school is against you. You have to look out for each other because no one else will, even the teachers give Slytherins detention faster than they do to the other houses, and they don’t give as many points. Well except Severus, he gives out way too many to try and make up the difference. Professor Flitwick is pretty cool too, and Professor McGonagall is always awesome so… I guess I just don’t see how being a Malfoy affects me. Sure, my family is rich, but bullying people for being who they are doesn’t sound very classy to me. And I’m really happy to be a Ravenclaw, it’s a lot more inclusive and tolerant of people than if I were in Slytherin. So, I’m glad for the experience.” he said.

Theo stared at him.

Draco continued to work for a while, he’d basically just said what he had been thinking but maybe he said too much…

The silence was getting damn awkward now.

Professor Flitwick bustled in loudly and broke the silence with his chatter. He came in and out a few times, grabbing more paperwork and telling him about his days as a master duelist. Draco listened politely, but Theo still hadn’t said anything…

It was near the end of their detention that he finally spoke again.

“You’re going to get disowned, you know” he said.

Draco shrugged, “I guess”

“No. I mean you actually are, Zabini told us. He’s been talking to his mother who has been talking to your father. Apparently, your father has something big planned for this year, and if it doesn’t make you act more like a Slytherin he’s going to start ‘taking steps to insure you will’ or something” Theo said.

“Planned what?” asked Draco… that’s what Dobby said too.

Theo shrugged. “Zabini was pretty ambiguous about it but he’s pretty sure your father has been going around the ministry trying to get Dumbledore fired and he’s spreading around that you will be disowned by the end of the year.”

Draco sighed, “well whatever, it’s not the worst thing in the world.”

“...Well… you could still get petrified before school ends I guess” Theo muttered just as Professor Flitwick came out.

“What, what? Now, I won’t have any monster talk, whatever or whoever is behind these attacks isn’t going to be some wild beast” Professor Flitwick said hurriedly.

“You don’t think so?” asked Draco, interested on the teacher’s perspective of the attacks.

“I’ve known a great many monsters in my time Mister Malfoy, even if the attacker is a creature of some kind I assure you a creature isn’t going to be writing messages in blood on the walls, or trying to scare everybody silly. Sometimes the real monsters are in plain sight, living all around us” he said cryptically.

“Tch, well everything thinks it’s the Slytherins anyway” huffed Theo. “Can we go now?” he said impatiently.

Professor Flitwick broke into a laugh, “of course, I’ve kept you too long anyway. But be careful on your way back, I don’t want either of you getting petrified.”

Theo eyed Draco some more before leaving the room.

Draco nodded to Professor Flitwick before leaving as well...

**_..._ **

**_It’s so cold in here._ **

**_He could feel frost biting at his skin, but the world was black._ **

_Is that laughter?_

**_Is that my father?_ **

**_A room came into view._ **

**_It was dark, the ghostly face of Voldemort looked down at him as his arm burned with pain. His father was there, a black book clasped tightly in his hands, he was laughing._ **

**_There was something truly cruel about that laugh._ **

_The room spiralled and became the walls of Hogwarts._

**_The sight of petrified students filled every hallway, his father was there standing over Hermione’s bleeding, battered body._ **

_Dobby was sobbing, **“I warned you,” the house elf said, “you didn’t keep Mr Harry Potter safe.”**_

_What? Father?_

**_A large black shape of a monster pounced at him._ **

\--

Draco woke up sweating. He grabbed his head slowly.

“No, no, no, no” he whispered.

His father wasn’t the monster that was stupid. He took a breath.

Memories of his father locked away in his office, Dobby’s warning. That odd letter he’d received telling him not to snoop. Theo said he was planning something

_‘But… but he couldn’t be’_ Draco thought, _he was planning to get Dumbledore fired sure but that wasn’t linked to the chamber._

… Real monsters are in plain sight… Draco shook his head and got up. Nope, nope, it was impossible… yeah. impossible.

It was already morning, and he had missed breakfast so he started getting ready for class, shaking his head to get rid of the nightmare.

_‘It was just a dream, it’s not like dreams are true’_

_‘Although... I already had suspicions and Dobby confirmed them,’_

He shook his head again, he couldn’t dwell on this. He walked to his first class, but everyone was talking about the Chamber of Secrets. He ended up putting his hands over his ears and trying to ignore them... He just couldn’t get his father’s laughing face out of his head.

_‘I can’t believe it. He isn’t even at Hogwarts so it’s not like he could have opened the chamber.?’_

_‘But then... I could believe it. I mean, he always has been evil.’_

_‘I know he’s bad but... to want to kill the muggleborns?’_

_‘He’s always hated muggleborns I should have known it was him’_

He thought of Hannah in the hospital wing, she wasn’t a muggleborn she was a half-blood… but she was still petrified. So, then it couldn’t be a vendetta against muggleborns only… In fact, most of the people in the hospital wing were people he knew, or at least people his friends… knew… wait...

Classes ended for the day and he went straight back to the dorm,

_‘It might not be him though…’_

_‘I don’t want to live with him if it is! What if someone actually dies?’_

_‘Then it’ll be father’s fault’_

_‘Father wouldn’t…’_

_‘He would’_

...he didn’t sleep much that night, every time he did it was that same dream again. He got up the next day wound up even more than before.

An owl from his parents had come, the second letter from his father this year and it was ordering him to come home for Christmas…

But why?

He’d stayed for Christmas last time and he planned to help those guys with their polyjuice potion…

_‘What use would that potion even do now, if it wasn’t Blaise behind it.’_

_‘But I don’t know that... it might not be father.’_

_‘Merlin, I have to go home over Christmas, what the hell am I going to say to him? ‘are you attacking people in my school?’ yeah that will go down well.’_

_‘Agh… Fuck!’_

The final week before the holidays went by in a bit of a blur.

Every day was just getting worse and worse. Everywhere he looked he expected to see his father grinning smugly over a muggleborns dead body.

“Why do we use these damn fucking quills! Give me a bloody pen so I don’t destroy half the parchment I write on, Jesus Christ wizarding world just because you are in hiding from muggles doesn’t mean you have to shun their office supplies” He raged at Terry who blinked at him owlishly.

“Okay I think you’ve had too much pumpkin juice” Terry said pulling the goblet away from him.

Draco levelled him with a glare but didn’t have the energy to argue, he walked out into the courtyard in a rage.

There was a lot of talk going around about a boy called Justin getting petrified along with Nearly Headless Nick. At least he didn’t know them… so it wasn’t like the attacks were a vendetta against him, right? Maybe...

He could hear the gossip about Harry, groups of students eyeing the golden trio as if they were being subtle about it.

Draco knew it wasn’t Harry who opened the chamber… why couldn’t anyone else see that? Why couldn’t anyone just use their damn brains.

_‘Why does father hate muggles so much anyway?!’_

_‘Maybe… maybe it’s him this time but that doesn’t mean it was him before I came back in time. right? It could have been someone else before??_ ’

_‘You know that’s bullshit, almost everything is the same.’_

And Draco did know… He knew that it was stupid to defend his father, he had a lot of evidence against him… But it’s just...  

He’s my father, right…

_‘Maybe I should tell Dumbledore’_ he thought.

Harry and Hermione were close by and whispering over the polyjuice potion book. Why would they have that book out in plain sight anyway! He tried to ignore them, he didn’t want to talk to them right now.

‘ _I should tell Dumbledore, right?’_ he hesitated, Dumbledore told him not to reveal anything… not even to him. But someone might die!

“Draco” Harry called. Draco flinched.

“What?” he snapped, _‘can’t you see? My father is fucking killing everyone! what the hell do you want to say? Do you know how to stop him? If you don’t I’m not bloody interested!’_

“We are doing the polyjuice potion over Christmas break, if you are staying it would be great if you could help, we could really use you for the last part of the potion” Harry said.

“No!” Draco snapped. His voice taking on an icy cold tone. “Honestly, I’m not some... nice person that can help you with all of your problems! Maybe sometimes I have my own problems to deal with so just stop being so fucking annoying.”

Draco ignored the upset look on Harry’s face, after all he had pretty much just snapped at him for absolutely no reason but he was too pissed at everything around him to say anything else.

Who the fuck cares anyway, he wasn’t even supposed to be Harry’s friend. It would be better if they weren’t, with the way his father was acting… nope not thinking about it.

He ignored the shocked look on Hermione’s and other students faces.

“I have to go see Dumbledore” he said abruptly, walking back into the school.

Professor McGonagall was stood outside of Dumbledore’s office when he got there, she seemed to be arguing with the gargoyle...

“Is the Headmaster here?” he asked.

Professor McGonagall looked around at him. “I’m afraid he isn’t taking any visitors today... Shouldn’t you be in class? She added.

“Right…” said Draco. Turning away before she could give him detention or something.

So much for telling Dumbledore... Oh well, he was skipping Lockhart’s class anyway, who even cared… why would Dumbledore not be seeing anyone?... ugh. Maybe the whole fucking world has a vendetta against him!

No, he couldn’t keep doing this, it was so damn hard! HE KNEW who it was, he could do something! He could tell Dumbledore and then Dumbledore could stop the attacks and arrest... his father... or something.

But... Dumbledore didn’t actually want to be told about what would happen. Even though he could probably fix it all. Just because it’s the future, he doesn’t want to know.

And here he was just walking back to the common room and doing nothing about it! How could he just let his father get away with his.

_‘The polyjuice potion doesn’t even matter anymore! They’re trying to question Blaise who knows fucking nothing!’_

He spent the next day unmoving from bed.

He may have had a panic attack, or two. He wasn’t sure.

Eventually he calmed down, and felt a little guilty for snapping at everyone so much. The other Ravenclaws seemed to sense he was having a breakdown and kept leaving chocolate bars by the side of his bed.

But he was just so damn stressed! And he couldn’t decide whether his dreams were right...

And, he had to go home! Tomorrow!! FUCK.

He avoided the golden trio until it was time to get on the train. He tried going to Dumbledore again before he left but he still ‘wasn’t seeing students right now’ THE FUCK DOES THAT MEAN!?!

Although… He did leave Harry a Christmas present, although he wasn’t sure if Harry would want it... It wasn’t a friend thing… well kinda. He just thought it would be interesting.

By the time he arrived home he had managed to calm himself enough to look his father in the face without screaming.

Honestly, his father looked as pissed off as Draco felt.

~~ **Because it took me so long to upload this I’m putting this part with this Chapter** ~~~~

The walls of Malfoy Manor had never felt quite so cold. Even when Voldemort was practically living there at least there had been some life, even if it was just Bellatrix cackling to herself as she came up with inventive ways to torture people.

The icy coldness he felt now was twice as frightening, at least when Voldemort was there he could hide away unless he was called.

There was no way to hide from his father, sure the man didn’t actually speak to him, he just, as always, oozed disappointment. Every meal they spent together was full of backhanded comments, Draco couldn’t bring himself to respond.

If he acknowledged the truth he might just break down, and to break down in front of HIM would be the worst thing he could do.

His mother seemed to sense that there was something wrong and tried to cheer him up by helping him go through animagus things, she agreed to help him with keeping a mandrake leaf in his mouth for a month over the next summer.

He was incredibly thankful she was there. Her presence alone was soothing, and his father didn’t tend to speak to him too much when his mother was there to send her own icy glares back at him.

The shouting only got worse when Lucius had been drinking, and that was becoming increasingly more frequent.

It also put Lucius in an even worse mood than usual.

It was at these times, after a few bottles of wine. Yeah. not glasses, bottles. That his father actively pursued him just to shout and rant.

Christmas Eve was the day Draco finally snapped.

“Honestly, why do I even bother, what have all these years been for” Lucius slurred at him, “why couldn’t you just follow the plan I set up for you, you’re weak, weak like your mother, even when the Dark Lord was here she never stepped up, just hid away,” he waved his arms wildly, “why have I been cursed with a worthless family.”

Draco growled under his breath.

“Show some respect you useless whelp, where would you even be if it weren’t for me!” the man said, his voice spiking louder.

Draco could feel his anger boiling…  ‘ _Don’t shout it’ll just make it worse.’_ He told himself.

“Not to mention becoming friends with those filthy mudbloods, pathetic… and disgusting, can’t you see how inferior they are, or perhaps you are just as worthless as them.” Lucius spit. “Particularly that ugly, mudblood girl, what was her name? Granger?”

“Shut up” Draco growled.

“Oh? Hit a nerve, did I? You like the little mudblood whore?” his father sneered.

“She is more than you will ever be” Draco said. _‘Don’t shout, just don’t shout’_

His father just snorted and stumbled towards him with a wine bottle still in his hand. “Oh really, well those filthy mudbloods won’t be around for much longer anyway, after all they deserve to die.”

“Shut up, fucking prick!” Draco snapped.

His father just snorted and drank more wine.

“What happened to you? You used to care about your family! You may not have made the best decisions but at the end of the day family was ALWAYS the most important! You told me that!” Draco shouted.

His father looked confused, his face going red in anger. Draco vaguely realised he was talking about something that happened in the future.

“Y-you are not going to kill my friends!” Draco snapped.

His father looked amused, and lopsided. “And how would you stop me? Little Ravenclaw.” He sneered.

“I don’t know what you have done at Hogwarts but I know you are the one causing it-,” his father’s smile fell.

“-And I will tell everyone, I will stop you, and no one is going to die!” he shouted angrily.   

“You…! You know nothing! Not even, worth my time, I told you to keep your nose out” he spat. “Those mudblood and blood traitor friends of yours, all of them will die eventually. But never did I think my own son would be some muggle loving bitch like those Weasleys.” He leant over Draco, he smelt of alcohol and puke.

Draco covered his mouth and nose with his hand.

“You’re fucking drunk” he said.

“NO, I’m drunk!” Lucius slurred.

Draco growled and stood up. “Get out of here! I don’t care what you have to say, I’m glad I don’t live up to YOUR expectations anyway, I wish I had realised sooner how stupid you are” he said.

“STUPID? YOU CALL ME STUPID BOY!” Lucius shouted making exaggerated gestures.

“You are stupid!” Draco snapped. “You want innocent people dead and you follow a man that doesn’t care about anyone but himself! To Voldemort we are all just spares!” Draco shouted.

His head split with pain as the wine bottle hit him. “HOW DAAAARE YOU SPEAK HIS NAME” Lucius ranted.

“Lucius” a deadly cold voice spoke behind them.

His father spun around to face his mother. “Step away from my son” she said, her wand was raised.

Lucius laughed, “What are you going to do wench?” he sneered.

Draco didn’t recognise the hex that hit Lucius full in the face. Nor did he hear his mother speak a word, didn’t even notice she’d waved her wand. Lucius just fell backwards, knocked out cold.

“Draco dear? Are you alright” his mother said brightly, putting her wand away and sweeping over.

Draco could feel himself slipping, beyond the pain in his head, it was like the floodgates opening and he had to cover his face to stop the tears. He hadn’t cried in years, he was a grown man for Merlin's sake.

“Draco dear” Narcissa said softly, he felt her arms around him, his shoulders shook with his sobs. “Talk to me sweetie” she said quietly, she put her hand over the bruise forming on his head.

“I know father has made bad decisions, I know that he used to… that he hurts people but, he’s actually going around killing muggleborns, as if they are somehow less worthy of living. I-I don’t understand, how he could do such a thing.” He sobbed into his mother’s shoulder.

“Shhh, Draco, darling. What are you talking about?” she asked seriously.

“...At Hogwarts, father did something, he’s trying to kill the muggleborn students, and I… I don’t know what to do” he sobbed.  

“Shhh. Shh. It’s ok, darling, you aren’t Merlin, you don’t have to do everything alone dear” she said. “I’ve known for a long time that your father isn’t… kind. He cares about his family. Believe me he does. He just... he’s fallen into the hands of the Dark Lord and, he never found his way out even after his defeat. But he does love you Draco” she pulled him closer but he pushed her back.

“If you knew he wasn’t kind, and that he worked with Voldemort why did you marry him in the first place? I know it was probably arranged but you still didn’t have to marry him” Draco said. A pureblood can still refuse an arranged marriage, he did.

Narcissa sighed deeply, “Let me tell you a story… yes our marriage was arranged, after my cousin left home, our mother wanted to make sure your aunt and I married well, the Malfoy family was very powerful. I did as I was told. As all pureblood wizards are taught to do, you can be as ambitious and Slytherin as you like but you still have to obey… or at least that’s how I thought back then” she chuckled softly to herself.  

“But you know. I was in love with another.” She laughed again, more wistfully. “You know he never even noticed me… Completely head over heels in love with someone else and yet everything he did just made me love him even more. I always thought to myself, if I had a choice, maybe I would have spoken to him more, he may have been younger by a few years but... Maybe I would have tried to be a part of his life.” Draco could feel her tears against his shoulder, but he couldn’t bring himself to ask. She pulled away a little.

“But enough about me.”

She stared into his eyes as she spoke, “Draco listen to me now. You are a strong boy, you are not your father and I’ve never wanted you to be. Despite his wrongdoings he can be a good man, but for some reason he is choosing not to be. You can be anyone you want and if he tries to stop you. Prove him wrong.”

She smiled again.

“I know Hogwarts is a scary place right now. Whatever Lucius has done I will do my best to make right, but you need to go back there and you need to protect the other students as well as yourself. Okay Draco... Do not let him win.”

He nodded stiffly. “What are you going to do?” he asked.

She smiled, “I’m going to have words with some old friends of mine” she said, then she stood gracefully, wiping away his stray tears and sweeping from the room.

Draco was left feeling more confused than ever.     

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted the chapter to be kind of fast paced to match Draco's growing anxiety/stress panic... but I can't tell if I pulled it off because I've read it myself too many times >_<   
> I wanted to add Theo because I like Theo (^-^)


	9. Harry's Christmas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Christmas time still~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Harry needs to start giving his friends Christmas and birthday presents lol.

**Chapter 9**

 

Christmas morning dawned, cold and white. Harry groaned as the door burst open and he saw Hermione fully dressed and poking Ron with her wand in an attempt to rouse him.

“Wake up,” she said loudly, pulling back the curtains at the window. “Hermione... you’re not supposed to be in here” said Ron, who turned over grumpily and shielded his eyes against the light.

“Merry Christmas to you, too,” said Hermione, throwing him his present. “I’ve been up for nearly an hour, adding more lacewings to the potion. It’s ready.”

Harry sat up, suddenly wide awake. “Are you sure?”

“Positive,” said Hermione, shirting Scabbers the rat so that she could sit down on the end of Ron’s four-poster. “If we’re going to do it, I say it should be tonight, are you sure you know what you want to ask Harry.” She asked. “If you’re sure Draco’s father opened it last time then the Slytherins might really be useless”

“I know you guys are suspicious of Draco now, but I’m telling you there’s no way he is involved… and we all know how evil his father is” he huffed. Even after Draco shouted at him, he still didn’t think he was the one that opened the chamber. It just didn’t make sense.

Ron, who was very on and off on whether he liked Draco or not looked dubious. “Fred and George said that too… I don’t know why they like him so much” he muttered.

At that moment, Hedwig swooped into the room, carrying a very small package in her beak. “Hello,” said Harry happily as she landed on his bed. “Are you speaking to me again?”

She nibbled his ear in an affectionate sort of way, which was a far better present than the one that she had brought him, which turned out to be from the Dursleys. They had sent Harry a toothpick and a note telling him to find out whether he’d be able to stay at Hogwarts for the summer vacation.

Hagrid had sent him a large tin of treacle toffee, Ron had given him a book called Flying with the Cannons, a book of interesting facts about his favourite Quidditch team, and Hermione had bought him a luxury eagle-feather quill.

There was also a new, hand-knitted sweater from Mrs. Weasley and a large plum cake. He read her card with a fresh surge of guilt, thinking about Mr. Weasley’s car (which hadn’t been seen since they crashed it into the Whomping Willow), and the bout of rule-breaking he and Ron were planning next.  

“We’re going to check the potion Harry” Hermione called, she practically dragged Ron with her. “We’ll be back in 10 minutes”

Harry waved to them before turning to his final present.

 

Dear Harry,

Sorry for the other day,

I don’t know if you will find this present amusing or hate it but I realised I never got to send you a birthday present so think of this as a Birthday and Christmas present.

Oh, and don’t shake the box you might scare him.

Draco

 

Harry quirked an eyebrow, at first, he was really upset when Draco snapped at him. And he still was upset… he’d never thought he was annoying before, but then again, he always asked Draco for help with his problems, when was the last time he’d helped Draco with something…... But then again, Terry had come to them afterwards and said Draco seemed to be in a horrible mood for the past few days, apparently some of the Ravenclaws were speculating that it was because his father had suddenly commanded him to come home for Christmas instead of letting him stay at Hogwarts.

So, although he was upset, Harry could kind of understand why Draco would be angry about going home, after all he would feel the same if the Dursleys told him he had to go back to Privet Drive.

He was at least glad Draco still wanted to be his friend… the rest they could work out later.

He opened the box slowly.

Inside was a beautiful black and white kingsnake. Harry gasped audibly, the snake looked up at him and blinked.

_“I know I’m beautiful but no need to ssssssssstare”_ the snake hissed. Harry resisted the urge to laugh.

The snake slithered up his arm and Harry spoke to it quietly. He was a male snake from Oregon, California and seemed happy to find someone to talk to. Harry hid him under his Weasley sweater when Hermione and Ron came back in.

“The potion is definitely ready” Hermione beamed.

Harry smiled and followed them to the great hall for breakfast. As much as he wanted to share the snake with them, he was put off by the way they freaked out when they found out he was a parselmouth.

It looked as though Draco didn’t mind though. He suddenly felt very aware that he hadn't sent Draco a Christmas present. Wow, he didn't even know when Draco's birthday was... how did Draco find out about his? He needed to ask... Everyone else had been treating him like a murderer ever since he stopped the snake from attacking Justin but Draco actually sent him a snake. It made him feel more like speaking parseltongue was a normal thing and not just a weird quirk he had.

He spoke to the snake quietly for the rest of the morning, telling it all about the chamber of secrets and the mysterious voice in the walls.

“So that’s why we’re going to spy on the Slytherins with the polyjuice potion,” he concluded confidently.

_“Wonderful, you are a very brave little sssssssssnakeling”_ said the snake, curling itself around his bicep. He’d discovered that with his Hogwarts robes on you couldn’t see the snake at all and it had taken a particular liking to the sweater Mrs. Weasley sent him.

“It’s a good thing you can hide so well because if anyone else saw you they’d probably have a heart attack. There’s enough talk about me being the Heir of Slytherin as it is” he said.

“ _You're not ssssssssnake enough to be the heir”_ the snake replied from under his robes. Harry raised an eyebrow confused but the snake seemed to have fallen asleep around his arm.

He quickly hurried out of his room to the great hall, even though he was dreading drinking the polyjuice potion it wasn’t going to ruin Christmas dinner. He walked hurriedly, Ron and Hermione had gone on ahead earlier due to Ron’s complaints about how hungry he was.

He almost jumped out of his skin when the little snake started shuddering under his Weasley Christmas sweater.

_“UWAHHHH”_ the snake whimpered, shaking under Harry’s clothes, Harry looked down at the little black and white snake.

“Uhh, what’s wrong??” he asked.

Suddenly there a familiar sound all around him.

_Kill_

_Kill_

_Kill!_

_“It’ssssss gonna kill ussssssssss”_ whined the little snake curling itself tight around Harry’s forearm. Harry tried to calm him down but the little snake didn’t ease up it’s pressure.

“Wait! You can hear it too? What is that thing? Do you know?” Harry asked. “Is it going to attack again, now?”

_“Ssssssssshhh you must not ssssspeak of it, the sssibilusss will kill ussss, it doessssssn’t like ussssssss_ ” the little snake whined burying itself in Harry’s sweater and not saying anymore. Harry petted the snake until it stopped shaking but he still needed to get to the bathroom.

“Don’t worry, with luck everything will be resolved after today” Harry said.

The snake hissed at him softly but didn’t say anything. It kept itself wrapped snugly around Harry’s bicep.

He walked into the Great Hall and pretended nothing was wrong, a quick glance around already told him that all of the teachers and students left behind at school were there so the monster couldn’t have attacked anyone else.

He stuffed his face with the feast and watched Fred and George charm Percy’s Headboy badge to say ‘pinhead,’ dinner finished far faster than he would have liked and Hermione ushered him and Ron out of the Great Hall.

“We still need a bit of the people you’re changing into and obviously, it’ll be best if you can get something of Crabbe’s and Goyle’s” Hermione said calmly, “they may not be that close to Blaise anymore but they are staying for the holidays too and I’m sure Zabini will boast about the chamber to them if you try to talk to him. I know you want to question them about Draco too Ron, although I don’t know what you plan to accomplish” she huffed.

“Hermione you’re always saying there’s something off about him and he’s too smart or whatever I’m just gonna find out why” he huffed. Harry knew that Ron wasn’t happy about Draco’s outburst the other day, but he doubted the Slytherins would know anything, Draco was a Ravenclaw after all.

“Fine, just make sure the real Crabbe and Goyle can’t burst in on us while we’re interrogating Zabini.” she went on smoothly, ignoring Harry’s and Ron’s stupefied faces.

She held up two plump chocolate cupcakes. “I’ve got it all worked out, I’ve filled these with a simple Sleeping Draught. All you have to do is make sure Crabbe and Goyle find them. Draco agreed that as long as they see the cakes they are bound to eat them. Once they’re asleep, pull out a few of their hairs and hide them in a broom closet.”

Harry and Ron looked incredulously at each other. “Hermione, I don’t think-”

“The potion will be useless without Crabbe’s and Goyle’s hair,” she said sternly. “You do want to investigate Zabini, don’t you?”

“Oh, all right, all right,” said Harry. “So, whose hair are you ripping out?”

“I’ve already got mine!” said Hermione brightly, pulling a tiny bottle out of her pocket and showing them the single hair inside it. “Remember Millicent Bulstrode wrestling with me at the Dueling Club? She left this on my robes when she was trying to strangle me! And she’s gone home for Christmas... so I’ll just have to tell the Slytherins I’ve decided to come back.”

When Hermione had bustled off to check on the Polyjuice Potion again, Ron turned to Harry with a doom-laden expression. “Have you ever heard of a plan where so many things could go wrong?”

They turned back towards the Great Hall, cupcakes in hand. Although there was no doubt that Crabbe and Goyle would be in there eating for a very long time.

It turned out to be easier than he thought, they lurked in the entrance hall for about another half an hour before Crabbe and Goyle walked out, their arms full of cakes and sweets. Harry and Ron perched the cakes on the end of the bannisters and when Crabbe spotted them he pointed and the two of them walked over to the cakes with stupid grins on their faces. They grabbed the cakes and ate them without thinking twice.

“How thick can you get?” Ron whispered as both of them chewed greedily, looks of triumph on their faces. Then, without the smallest change of expression, they both keeled over backward onto the floor.

They shoved them in the broom closet as fast as they could and plucked out their hair. They took their shoes too. Hopefully when they woke up they would be too stupid to realise what actually happened.

He and Ron hurried back to Hermione who was sat next to the cauldron, pouring the bubbling potion into three tumblers in the middle of the bathroom. Myrtle was there too: she was whining at Hermione about the potions awful smell from the top of the sinks.

“Oh, stop it, you don’t have to smell it anyway you’re a ghost” Hermione huffed at Myrtle.

Myrtle looked distraught, “fine then, I’ll come into your room and create a horrible stink and see how you like it” she huffed before floating through the walls. A low wailing sound started a few seconds later.  

“So, what now” asked Ron.

“Now we add our hairs and we can get down to business” said Hermione. She brought the cups full of potion over to them and pulled out the hair of Millicent Bulstrode.

Her potion frothed yellow, it didn’t fill him with confidence as he added Goyle’s hair and watched it turn a booger colour.

They took separate stools and drank the potion on the count of three. It was a horrible feeling, his insides felt like they were writhing and a burning sensation began to spread all over his body. He didn’t know how ended up on the floor but next thing he knew he was blinking upwards. He sat up quickly and got dressed into the spare Slytherin clothes and Goyle’s shoes.

“Are you two okay?” Goyle’s low voice rasped and he jumped at the sound.

“Yeah” replied a deep grunt of Crabbe. He walked out of the stall and stared at Ron-Crabbe. Ron immediately went over to the mirror and started poking at his own face. “This is unbelievable” he said.

“We better get going. We’ve already lost a few minutes. Hermione are you ready?” he asked.

“I — I don’t think I’m going to come after all. You go on without me.” she said from inside the stall.

Ron gave a bewildered expression that looked very Crabbe-like, “Hermione, we know Millicent Bulstrode’s ugly, no one’s going to know it’s you.” he said.

“No, um, I don’t think I’ll come. You two hurry up, you’re wasting time,” Harry looked at the stall sceptically, Hermione had been so excited about the whole thing and now she didn’t want to come?

“Hermione, are you okay?” said Harry through the door.

“Fine... I’m fine, go on” she replied.

“...alright we’ll meet you back here then” said Harry. They slowly left the bathroom and headed off slowly to the dungeons before realising they had no idea how to get into the Slytherin common room.

“We can’t just wait out here until someone comes, we only have an hour” Harry whispered harshly as they walked down the stairs. Ron looked as frustrated as he felt.

“What are you two doing out here?” someone said behind them.

They twirled around and came face to face with exactly who they were looking for. Blaise Zabini.

“I suppose you dunces got lost again, what are you gonna do now that Malfoy isn’t here for you to follow” he sneered at them.

“We want to talk to you” Harry said, hoping it was the right thing to say.

Zabini looked confused for a second before giving a smug grin at them. “Oh, I see, now that Malfoy’s gone home to face his father you want to come crawling back to me.” He continued grinning as he walked further down into the dungeons.

They passed Percy as they walked, he gave the three of them a hard glare and a snide, “get back to your dormitories” before carrying on. Zabini gave him a sneer and carried on through the dungeons, at last coming to a stone wall.

“Pure-blood” he said and a stone door concealed in the wall slid open.

They walked in behind Zabini hesitantly. The Slytherin common room was draped in greens, a warm fire burning in the fire place and the place was decorated with the same Christmas decorations as they had in the Gryffindor common room.

“So, I will accept your apologies and assume you have given up on that disappointment Malfoy.” Blaise said sitting back in a chair, his smug grin hadn’t dropped.

Harry tried his best not to sneer as he and Ron sat opposite him.

“What’s up with you? Don’t tell me you still like the blood traitor?” Zabini said, looking at him disapprovingly. Harry shook his head quickly.

“Then again, at least Malfoy’s family have the right idea. I heard that Malfoy’s father got the Weasley family in big trouble for the flying car stunt Potter pulled at the start of the year” Zabini continued with a smirk. “With luck, all these blood traitors will get what’s coming to them along with the mudbloods”

Ron was giving Zabini a hard glare.

“What’s wrong with you now?” Zabini glared back.

“He has a Stomach ache” Harry grunted, elbowing Ron softly.

Zabini seemed to accept it and carried on, “with the heir of Slytherin around, this schools just going to get better, I heard they will replace Dumbledore soon too.”

_‘Damnit, so Zabini isn’t the heir of Slytherin? Maybe he still knows who it is though._ ’ Harry thought.

“And what about Draco?” said Ron.

“Malfoy? He can get kicked out or killed with the muggles” Blaise said harshly.

“You don’t think he’s behind it?” Ron prompted, obviously he was looking for a reason to be suspicious of Draco, but Zabini gave him a disgusted look.

“Him? The heir of Slytherin? Don’t be a dunce Crabbe,” said Blaise. Ron looked put out but not entirely disappointed.

Blaise continued as if he were talking to himself, “that muggle loving blood traitor couldn’t be behind this. Although he really is the absolute worst, walking around like he knows everything. I feel bad for his father, hopefully he will be properly punished for his traitorous ways over the holiday.”

“Shut up” Harry snapped before he could stop himself.

“What?” Zabini said twirling around on him suddenly. “You still like the traitor? You should learn that Malfoy is the absolute worst person in this entire school”

Harry thought quickly and spluttered out “What about Harry Potter?”

Thankfully, Blaise let out a laugh, “Good one Goyle. Yes, Bloody Potter. He’s an even worse candidate for the heir of Slytherin than Malfoy”

“Then you must have some clue of who's behind it?” said Ron.

“You know I don’t Crabbe. My mother refuses to tell me anything. The only thing I was able to find out” he said ushering them closer to him, “is that the chamber was last opened 50 years ago. And last time a muggleborn died!” he looked gleeful. “Hopefully one will die this year…. I hope it’s that Granger.”

Ron cracked his knuckles and Zabini looked shocked.

“What’s wrong with you two?” he demanded before turning back to the Christmas tree and fishing under it for presents.

“Nothing it’s his stomach ache.” Harry said quickly, “do you know what happened to the person who opened the chamber last time?” he asked.

“Sure, he got expelled, I guess he’ll still be in Azkaban” said Blaise, coming back to them with a box of chocolates.

“Azkaban?” said Harry, puzzled.

“The wizard prison, Goyle, honestly how does Malfoy even put up with you two.” Zabini sighed and started eating the chocolate. “Stupid Malfoy” he muttered to himself. “You know the Ministry of Magic have been raiding pureblood houses, not that they would find anything, most purebloods know to keep their dark arts hidden away, like behind the basement walls.”

Blaise trailed off and stuffed his face with more chocolate.

Ron nudged him harshly and whispered, “Harry your scar,” while pointing at Harry’s forehead.

“Your hair.” Harry whispered back, pointing at the ginger hairs appearing.

They both ran towards the exit with Zabini screaming after them “Where are you dunces going now?”

Harry shouted back loudly “Need... Bathroom!” as they ran.

They made it back to moaning Myrtle's bathroom just as their shoes became four sizes too big.

“Well, it wasn’t a complete waste of time,” Ron panted, closing the bathroom door behind them. “I know we still haven’t found out who’s doing the attacks now, but I’m going to write to Dad tomorrow and tell him to check all the walls in Zabini’s basement.”

Harry glared at him, “at least you know that Draco isn’t part of it, he said checking his face in the cracked mirror. He was back to normal… and he couldn’t see a thing. ‘ _We did learn one important thing though_ ’ he thought pulling out his glasses.

“If the chamber was last opened 50 years ago then it couldn’t have been Draco’s father, right? He wasn’t in school that long ago, right?” he said.

Ron shrugged and started to hammer on the door of Hermione’s stall. “Hermione, come out, we’ve got loads to tell you —”

“Go away!” Hermione squeaked. Harry and Ron looked at each other.

“What’s the matter?” said Ron. “You must be back to normal by now,” But Moaning Myrtle glided suddenly through the stall door. Harry had never seen her look so happy.

“Ooooooh, wait till you see,” she said. “It’s awful...” They heard the lock slide back and Hermione emerged, sobbing, her robes pulled up over her head. “What’s up?” said Ron uncertainly. “Have you still got Millicent’s nose or something?”

Hermione let her robes fall and Ron backed into the sink. Her face was covered in black fur. Her eyes had turned yellow and there were long, pointed ears poking through her hair. “It was a c-cat hair!” she howled. “M-Millicent Bulstrode m-must have a cat! And the p-potion isn’t supposed to be used for animal transformations!”

“You’ll be teased something dreadful,” said Myrtle happily.

“It’s okay, Hermione,” said Harry quickly. “We’ll take you up to the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey never asks too many questions...”

It took a long time to persuade Hermione to leave the bathroom.

Moaning Myrtle sped them on their way with a hearty guffaw. “Wait till everyone finds out you’ve got a tail!”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Harry needed a snake <_<


	10. The Diary

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shit goes down when Draco returns to Hogwarts~

**Chapter 10**

 

Draco hadn’t seen his father since Christmas Eve, but his mother had been a whirlwind of activity, she had sent out at least 10 different owls, all to different people. Draco assumed she was up to something, they had spoken about the Chamber of Secrets for a while and Narcissa told him what she knew. That it was opened before 50 years ago and that there was a rumour around school when she was there that it was Hagrid that who was arrested for it…

Draco wasn’t sure what to think of that. Hagrid was arrested in second year, but also came back in the final feast right…? So, he couldn’t have opened it 50 years ago, it would make a lot more sense if he was just blamed because he’s a half giant… minorities were always blamed.

He spent some time casting spells related to animagi. Things were going well if he was honest, probably because he finished his winter holiday homework on the first day and spent all of his spare time researching and doing more important things.

The house was once again very quiet, and he spent most of his time in the library. There wasn’t a sound in the Malfoy library, only the flickering of the fire in the fireplace which filled the room with a soft orange light and comfortable warmth.

“Master Draco sir” whispered a quiet voice.

He looked up from his spell book. Dobby stood in front of him, looking as miserable as he had back at Hogwarts.

“Hey” he said.

Dobby blinked at him, his eyes filling with tears.

Draco sighed. “Thank you for trying to help” he said honestly, “but next time don’t send a bludger after anyone.”

“Oh, Master Draco sir” Dobby cried, throwing himself at Draco and clinging to his leg.

He sighed again and moved the crying house elf off him.

“Be careful of my father, alright?” he said. Dobby nodded at him.

"Dobby brought a letter from Mister Potter sir" he said and pulled a letter out out of his tattered clothes.

"Oh, thank you" said Draco taking the letter nervously.

Dobby disappeared without another word, filling the room with a loud crack sound as he apparated the way house elves do.

Draco went back to his spell book, fiddling with his bookmark again as he thought about the poor house elf. It would be nice if he could give clothes to Dobby without his father finding out it was him. Out of all of the house elves in the manor Dobby was the one that took most of the beatings, mostly because he was his father's personal house elf and so had the most contact with the man.

He rubbed his eyes tiredly and stared at the letter. He would be back in Hogwarts soon. And hopefully the golden trio will have found out more about the chamber.

Hopefully Harry would like his Christmas present. He personally loved snakes and often thought about getting a magical one to keep around… but unfortunately when they slithered around his house it always reminded him too much of the snake Nagini and he had to stop himself from freaking out.

With luck, Harry would like snakes and not hate him forever for giving him a snake while everyone thought he was the heir of Slytherin. Harry was smart though, he wouldn’t flaunt a snake around to the other students.

‘I need to open this letter’ he thought.

...but what if Harry hated him…

 

Dear Draco,

Thank you for the snake! I love him so much!! I never thought anyone would accept my parseltongue ability with all the Heir things going around.

I guess we need to talk when you come back?

We used the polyjuice potion by the way! But we still don’t know any more about the chamber…

Merry Christmas! I sent some Bertie Botts every flavour beans with the letter.

See you at Hogwarts.

Harry

 

Draco smiled. But, they need to talk… why does that sound like a break up line. He went back to reading to distract himself from thoughts of Harry and the Chamber monster.

-

By the end of the holidays, he was more than thankful to be returning to Hogwarts. Although, he didn’t see Harry much, he really needed to apologise properly for snapping at him… but every time he saw him he disappeared before he could approach.

Then again, he also tended to avoid him when he could, so it was probably more his fault than Harry’s...

A few days after they came back he went to the library to actually do homework for once. Luna and the twins joined him.

“Come oooooooooooon, you can’t tell Snape we’re smart” said Fred. Apparently since he told Severus his opinion on Fred and George he had started making them do class work properly.

“We’ve got a reputation to uphold” continued George.

“Now he expects us to be good in class” whined Fred.

“You seem very smart to me” said Luna, she looked like she was having an arts and crafts lesson, feathers, stones, thread and twigs were strewn across the table as she connected them together with magic.

“Not the point. How are we supposed to do our inventing if we have to do shit for class?” George whined.

“Don’t blame me, you two are far smarter than you let on, but you don’t get good grades because you only answer half the questions on every single exam you take” Draco huffed, edging his chair closer to Luna to get a closer look at the charm she was making.

“It’s our principal” smirked George,

“I do the first half” said Fred

“And I do the second” continued George.

“If the teachers put them together we’d have at least an Outstanding” they said together.

Draco rolled his eyes at them. ‘ _How were they not put in Ravenclaw, Professor Flitwick would love them in this crazy house.’_

“Finished~” Luna sighed dreamily, holding up the little charm for them to see. It looked kind of like a dream catcher, with a big stone in the middle and feathers coming out of it at odd angles.

“Great” said George, “what is it.”

Luna giggled as though George was messing with her, “why it’s a charm silly.” she said.

“For nargles?” asked Draco.

“No no, this is for nargles” she said holding up her necklace of butterbeer caps.

Fred didn’t look as though he knew what a nargle was but he nodded approvingly anyway, “sounds good, is this like a luck thing?” he asked her.

“I guess so,” Luna sighed, “with the exams coming up it will be good to keep my head clear.”  she began to clean away the things from the table into her bag.

“How was your Christmas anyway” asked Draco.

“Dad got me a puppy for Christmas, he’s so fluffy I love him. He spent most of Christmas snuffling around the garden, he’s very good at chasing the Snorkacks away you know...”

“I wish we could get a dog” said Fred with a sigh.

“We have Ron already,” George sighed.  

“Oh Draco, we heard Hermione was in the hospital. What has our darling brother been up to?” Fred asked with a mischievous grin.

“Oh right, they made the polyjuice potion over Christmas so i guess something happened” said Draco. Fred and George both gave more approving nods, their arms crossed.

“I feel so proud” said Fred,

“Our baby brother” continued George.

“All grown up and breaking rules” they said wiping away fake tears.  

Draco shook his head at them, but decided he should visit Hermione and find out how the polyjuice potion went.

"Hermione" he called, walking into the hospital wing.

"Oh Draco" Hermione called. A big sheet was put up. "Wait don’t look at me" Hermione screeched.

He spent the first 10 minutes assuring her that people had mixed the polyjuice potion with animals by accident before and they all turned out fine.

Hermione insisted on remaining behind the screen that was put up and refused to show him her face.

“What we do know is that the Chamber was opened before, and last time someone died, and the school almost closed down! We have to catch the heir of Slytherin soon before that can happen again” she said. Draco was glad she seemed to have a level head, unlike him, it seemed every loud noise was setting him off with paranoia.

“Well I guess I’ll leave you guys too it, you seem to know a lot already” he said.

“Oh… well we wouldn’t have gotten anywhere without you I’m sure” she replied, although he knew that they would have done this even if he were their enemy so she was probably just trying to make him feel better.

“So, what did you think of this week’s charms lesson?” she continued on, she sounded happier now, “after watching you duel with Lockhart, Harry is convinced you should be the one teaching us all DADA instead.”

He laughed a little.

“Well I might be better than Lockhart but that’s just because he is useless” he said. Hermione hummed, he knew that she thought he was too smart for their age, but she hadn’t confronted him on it.

“I suppose that’s true” she sighed, “Lockhart isn’t nearly as amazing as I thought”

Hermione’s Lockhart fangirl stage had passed after the duelling club and she was starting to grow suspicious of how good he really was at magic. That made Draco particularly happy because Lockhart was the worst person in the world honestly.

“Did you know, in class the other day he was talking about Finite Incantatem and he said it was a shielding spell! I doubt he’s ever used the spell in his life” she huffed. “He even sent me a card, here read it” she said, passing it to him around the screen.

“To Miss Granger, wishing you a speedy recovery, from your concerned teacher, Professor Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defense League, and five-time winner of Witch Weekly’s Most-Charming-Smile Award.”

“Ugh” he winced.

“At first I thought he was great but… if you ask me he is only signing his name with all of his awards to cover up for something” she huffed.

“It’s past curfew” Madam Pomphrey called. “Get back to your dorm now!”

He said goodbye to Hermione and walked back toward Ravenclaw tower. Although, he didn’t expect to turn a corner and walk straight into someone.

“...Colin?”  

“AH! Colin jumped in surprise and spun around guiltily, “… oh umm hi Draco” he said.

“What are you doing?” he asked, “and why are you always out so late.”

“Uhhhhhhhh……… what are YOU doing out this late” Colin replied shifting awkwardly.

Draco frowned, “you aren’t getting out of this one, and you can’t say you’re sneaking Harry grapes like last time I caught you out late because he isn’t even in the hospital wing” he said sternly.

“Uhhhhh well…. I mean after what happened with Justin and everyone’s being really scared! So, I thought… what if I got a picture of the monster? ...?” Colin looked as though he realised what a stupid idea it was and yet, he was still there doing it.

“You bloody Gryffindors are going to get yourselves petrified” Draco huffed.  “Always trying to save the day, don’t you know that if it’s going to get you killed then it isn’t saving the day it’s just worrying your friends and loved ones!” he lectured.

There was a sudden crash down the hall and they both turned to look. Draco stopped, sudden thoughts of his father wound around him.

“What was that!” Creevey said loudly running off in the direction

“Colin!” Draco hissed following after him. ‘ _Stupid fucking…’_

Colin turned the corner sharply and exclaimed “Who’s that?!”

He brought up his camera to take a photo. Draco halted quickly, looked over to where Colin was looking…

‘ _???…’_

Neville was walking down the hall, but his eyes were closed like he was sleep walking. Draco lowered Colin’s camera.

“Neville?” Draco said.

Neville’s eyes snapped open and he let out a terrified shriek, “No, no, no! It’s happening again!!!” He fell to the ground and curled into a ball.

“Neville are you alright what’s wrong?” squeaked Colin, running over to him.

Neville looked up at them, his eyes were red with tears and he looked even more sick than he had all year.           

“Are you okay?” Draco asked crouching down next to him. Neville looked as though he hadn’t slept in weeks.

“It isn’t me! I mean it is me! But I swear it’s not” Neville cried between sobs, “I-I’m so sorry Draco!”

“Neville, you aren’t making any sense. What isn’t you?” Draco asked trying to calm the distraught boy.

“The attacks” Neville whispered.

The attacks? But Neville couldn’t be the one attacking students, he’d thought it was his father...

“I-It’s this,” Neville said holding up a little black book, “the attacks on students, people getting petrified, I don’t know how but...”

Draco recognised it immediately and cringed _. ‘That’s the book I gave him… back in Madam Malkins…’_ He felt sick.

Colin had gone quiet, possibly unsure of what to say.

“T-this book is e-evil”, Neville continued “I didn’t know at first! I didn’t know it was me! But then I was waking up covered in feathers or with blood on my hands... and I couldn’t remember parts of the day” Neville sobbed heavily into Draco’s shoulder

“Neville, I’m so sorry, this is my fault I handed that to you at the start of the year.” Draco said.

Neville pulled away sharply. “NO! It’s not your fault! It’s… I mean, it’s Tom...” He said. “I-I don’t want to do this but somehow, he’s making me” Neville sniffled.

Draco took the book from his hand, his thoughts already whirling. Who was Tom? Maybe this diary was cursed… he could destroy it and then would the attacks stop? “I’ll take it, I’ll try to get rid of it ok?” he said, Neville sniffled sadly but nodded. Draco picked him up and then turned to Colin who was looking shivery.

“Colin, you shouldn’t be out this late, it isn’t safe. Hopefully after tonight the attacks will stop… but we can’t be sure” Draco said. Colin nodded and helped support Neville who seemed unable to stand properly on his shaky legs. Draco watched them walk back to the common room in the dark of night. Colin didn’t really understand the situation, but Draco was extremely thankful he wasn’t blaming Neville for anything despite not knowing the whole story.

In fact, Colin seemed to turn into a supportive parent, asking Neville if he needed something to eat or drink and helping him up to Gryffindor tower.

He looked at the diary in his hand.

The monster couldn’t be around, Neville may be behind the blood on the walls and killing the roosters, but he certainly wasn’t able to petrify anyway.

Draco walked quickly, his head spinning.

He opened the bathroom door.

“Myrtle, are you in here?” there was a groan from one of the pipes. Draco shook his head dropping the book to the floor.

“Confringo” he said, the book burst into flames but remained unharmed.

"That didn’t even hurt"

Draco thought he heard the diary mutter and he growled.

“Bombarda” he said again and watched the explosion, despite a thin layer of ash the book didn’t even have a dent in it.

Can a diary smirk? he thought.

Draco growled pacing around the room, ‘ _I could always take it to Dumbledore’_ he thought… but… he ran his hands through his hair absentmindedly.

He paused, listening to the groans of Myrtle from the pipes.

‘what would Harry do in this situation’ he thought.

The book was hex resistant, fire resistant and it was mocking him!

"fuck it" he muttered.         

He threw the book into the toilet, hit flush and left as soon as it went down the drain.

Then he stormed back to the Ravenclaw common room and hoped to God he wouldn’t see the book again.

**You’re out late**

Commented the Raven

“Shut up and give me the damn riddle” Draco sighed.

**_I am both living and lifeless_ **

**_Trapped with a cage around me_ **

**_Containing so much power_ **

**_Only with a little help can I do wonders_ **

“Easy, it’s a wand” he said.

**If you’re sure**

Replied the Raven as he stormed past into the common room.

Draco spent the night staring at the ceiling.

\----------------------------------------------------

 


	11. The Diary Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't think of a chapter name

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some people guessed correctly about the Ravens riddle from last chapter :V some people almost got it... either way I'm leaving it to your interpretations~

 

**Chapter 11**

 

“I am worried about him Harry, he’s been jumpy and pale ever since he got back from the holidays, and you know what he was like just before he left. Something is going on and he isn’t telling us” Hermione said.

Harry and Ron had decided to visit her for breakfast before classes started.

“Or maybe he opened the Chamber and just doesn’t want to admit it” Ron snarked.

Harry glared at him, the snake curled around his arm hissed out, _“who issss thisssss Draco I like the sssssound of him”_ Harry ignored the little snake, he would talk to him later when there wasn’t a chance of everyone freaking out about him hissing.

“You know that isn’t true, you interrogated Zabini yourself and even he knew Draco couldn’t be a part of it” Hermione huffed.

“Yeah well… he may not be that bad, but I still say his evil family is behind it somehow” Ron replied, his nose in the air.

They left the hospital wing after eating and started to head towards their class, it was still early so there weren’t many students in the hallways. Ron was still arguing about Draco.

“I already told you it isn’t him” Harry said.

“Come on, the Chamber was opened before, it must have been his father and now it’s him, I’m not saying he’s a bad person, but his family IS evil!” Ron claimed. Harry couldn’t disagree with the family part.

“50 years ago, is too long for it to be his father” he sighed. But he was interrupted by clanging and loud shouting from down the corridor. They both turned startled.

“Isn’t that Filch?” Harry muttered, they hurried up the stairs and paused, listening to a stream of shouts and curses.

“You don’t think someone else’s been attacked?” said Ron tensely.

Harry shook his head, he would have heard the voice of the thing, right?

They hurried closer to Filch’s cursing and found themselves once again at the spot where Mrs. Norris had been attacked.

“All night mopping and still no relief” they heard Filch say as he stormed furiously down the hall away from them.

They could see now what he had been shouting at. A great flood of water stretched over half the corridor, and it looked as though it was still seeping from under the door of Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom. From behind the door they could hear Myrtle’s wails echoing off the bathroom walls.

“Now what’s up with her?” said Ron.

“Let’s go and see,” said Harry. He picked up his robes and went over to the bathroom, ignoring the out of order sign. He pushed open the door and a ton of water spilled out as they entered. Myrtle’s wailing was a lot louder now that the door was open.

“Myrtle?” Harry called out as he waded over to the sinks.

They could hear a loud wailing sound that almost sounded like a banshee. Myrtle seemed to be hiding down her usual toilet. It was dark in the bathroom because the candles had been extinguished in the great rush of water that had left both walls and floor soaking wet.

He opened one of the toilet stalls, “what’s up, Myrtle?” he asked.

Myrtle’s head was sticking out of the toilet and she stared at him miserably. “Come to throw something else at me, have you?”

“What do you mean? Why would I throw something at you?” he asked curiously. _‘How do you throw something at a ghost anyway?’_

“Don’t ask me,” Myrtle shouted, coming out of the stall in a wave of more water. “I was just here, minding my own business when someone comes in. I assumed it was one of you because they called my name, but I didn’t want to talk, so they thought it was funny to throw a book at me…”

“But, you’re a ghost, it can’t hurt you if someone throws something at you, right? You can’t feel it” said Harry, reasonably.

Myrtle launched out of the toilet and shrieked, “Let’s all throw books at Myrtle, because she can’t feel it! Ten points if you can get it through her stomach! Fifty points if it goes through her head!! What a LOVELY game, I don’t think!”

“Who was it that threw it at you, anyway?” asked Harry, “I swear it wasn’t us.”  

“I don’t know... I was just sitting in the U-bend, thinking about death, and it fell right through the top of my head,” said Myrtle, glaring at them. “It’s over there, it was washed out with the water...” Harry looked under the sink where Myrtle was pointing.

“And then that crabby man came in and spent all night shouting over the mess I was making. As if he wouldn’t have cared if someone threw a book at him” she sniffed.

They ignored her as she started to wail again. _‘I know this book, don’t I?’_ Harry thought as he stepped forward to pick it up, the book was small and thin. It had a shabby black cover and was as wet as everything else in the bathroom…but Ron suddenly flung out an arm to hold him back. “What?” said Harry.

“Are you crazy?” said Ron. “You can’t just pick up a random book what if it’s dangerous!”

“It’s a book.” Harry snorted. “How could a book be dangerous?”

“You’d be surprised,” said Ron, who was looking apprehensive. “Some of the books the Ministry’s confiscated. Dad’s told me about them, there was one that burned your eyes out. And everyone who read Sonnets of a Sorcerer spoke in limericks for the rest of their lives. And some old witch in Bath had a book that you could never stop reading! You just had to wander around with your nose in it, trying to do everything one-handed. And...”

“All right, all right, I’ve got the point,” said Harry. “But a book like that wouldn’t just appear in a bathroom at Hogwarts, right?”

Ron gave him a worried grimace.

Harry looked back over at the book, it didn’t look very menacing when it was that soggy. “Well, we won’t find out unless we look at it,” he said, and he ducked around Ron to pick it up off the floor. Rolling his eyes at Ron’s horrified sound as he held it up. It wasn’t like the book was going to swallow him whole or anything.

He turned it over, the faded year on the cover told him it was fifty years old. It looked like some kind of diary or journal. He opened it eagerly. On the first page he could just make out the name “T. M. Riddle” in smudged ink.

“Hang on,” said Ron, he creeped a little closer to look at the book, “I know that name... T. M. Riddle got an award for special services to the school fifty years ago.”

“How on earth d’you know that?” said Harry in amazement.  

Ron huffed, “because Filch made me polish his shield about fifty times in detention after crashing the car into the Whomping Willow,” he said resentfully. “That was the one I burped slugs all over. If you’d wiped slime off a name for an hour, you’d remember it, too.”

Harry hummed curiously. Then looked at his hands, they were now black.

“Well that’s odd” he said, looking once again at the covers, the water over the front cover was slightly black for some reason, like it was covered in ash or dirt. He peeled the wet pages apart. They were completely blank. “He never wrote in it,” said Harry, disappointed.

“I wonder who would keep a 50-year-old empty diary around only to flush it down a toilet” said Ron curiously.

Harry turned to the back cover of the book and saw the printed name of a variety store on Vauxhall Road, London.

“He must’ve been Muggle-born,” said Harry thoughtfully. “To have bought a diary from Vauxhall Road...”

“Well, it’s not much use to you,” said Ron. He dropped his voice. “Fifty points if you can get it through Myrtle’s nose.”

Harry shook his head and started cleaning up the dirty water on it with some toilet paper.

-

Hermione was extremely interested in the diary and they speculated on how he got a special award 50 years ago… especially considering that was exactly when the Chamber of Secrets was first opened.

“It can’t be coincidence” Hermione kept saying, “we find out the chamber was opened 50 years and a diary from 50 years ago just appears”

Harry agreed, and kept the diary with him as he walked around school.

For a while it seemed like the monster was on a break, there had been no attacks since before the holidays and everyone was looking a bit happier. He just wished he could talk to Draco properly, but he seemed to be hanging out with his Ravenclaw friends a lot more.

He woke up on February fourteenth and wandered into the Great Hall. It was pink.

Everything was covered in pink flowers and pink hearts and even pink food. He walked over to Ron and sat down cautiously, “what’s up” he asked.

Ron just waved a hand over to the teachers table with a look of disgust. Lockhart, wearing the most lurid pink robes he’d ever seen, was waving for silence.

“Happy Valentine’s Day!” Lockhart shouted. “And may I thank the forty-six people who have so far sent me cards! Yes, I have taken the liberty of arranging this little surprise for you all... and it doesn’t end here!”

He clapped his hands and through the doors to the entrance hall marched a dozen surly-looking dwarfs. Not just any dwarfs, however. Lockhart had them all wearing golden wings and carrying harps.

“My friendly, card-carrying cupids!” beamed Lockhart. “They will be roving around the school today delivering your valentines! And the fun doesn’t stop here! I’m sure my colleagues will want to enter into the spirit of the occasion! Why not ask Professor Snape to show you how to whip up a Love Potion! And while you’re at it, Professor Flitwick knows more about Entrancing Enchantments than any wizard I’ve ever met, the sly old dog!”

Professor Flitwick looked horrified and Snape had a look that said, ‘ask me and you die.’

Harry ate his cereal quietly, “thank god we don’t have Snape today” he muttered.

“I know right,” said Ron looking over to the Slytherin table, then double taking. “Why the hell are Draco and that Hufflepuff friend of his sat at the Slytherin table!” he shouted.

Harry blinked, “Oh, I think they have friends in first year,” he recalled Draco telling him.

“B-but, they aren’t Slytherin” whined Ron.

Fred leaned over with a smug face, “that’s not how it works little bro” he said.

“Let’s go” said George.

The twins stood up and walked across the hall, sitting down on the end of the Slytherin table and throwing some pink hearts at Theodore Nott. The other Slytherins looked traumatised.

It was interesting to see how red Ron could turn, Harry thought.

“Want to join them?” he asked, smiling. He really did need to talk to Draco.

“Why would I want to sit with a bunch of slimy Slytherins” said Ron indignantly, “I bet if there was a Valentine’s day when Salazar Slytherin was part of the school he’d of set the place on fire.”

_“Ssssssalazar who?”_ hissed his snake. Harry moved his arm slowly from resting on the table, down to his side. If anyone noticed his sleeve hissing he’d be in deep trouble.

_“Pssssssst Harry”_

He shifted again and hoped the sound of his eating covered the sounds of the snake.

_“Hey, Harry, pssssssssst”_

I can’t just start hissing in public, people will think I’m crazy, or the Heir of Slytherin or something.

_“Who issss this Ssssssalazar? I like the sssssound of them”_

Please stop talking...

_“Harry”_

He tried to ignore the snake and focus on what Ron was ranting about.

“If Fred and George want to risk getting cursed by the Slytherins then they can go ahead-”

_“Psst”_

“-and sit with a bunch of snakes, they can be my guest-”

_“Harry, Psssst”_

“-but I have no reason to believe they aren’t all evil”

_“Harry, Harry, Harry, Harry”_

“WHAT??? Harry hissed sharply.

Ron gaped at him. And a few students turned to stare.

...*cough* *cough cough* Harry pretended to break into a coughing fit, “uhh, had a tickle in my throat, sorry” *cough* he said loudly.

“Uhhh, I was saying we should get out of here before Lockhart starts handing out love letters” said Ron. He was right, Lockhart was already walking around the room looking for people to give big love hearts to.

“Right,” he said and got up, hurrying towards the exit quickly and glancing down at the snake peeking out of his robes.

_“Can I be called Salazar?”_ the snake hissed.

“Sure, why not,” Harry muttered. He’d already made a fool of himself today, at least things weren’t likely to get worse. Valentine’s day was usually a pretty normal day, right?

_-_

_‘Alright,’_ Harry thought, _‘Valentine's day is the absolute worst day of the year.’_ All day dwarves had been barging in and interrupting their lessons. “Oy, you! ‘Arry Potter” one of them shouted as he walked to Charms class. He glanced around quickly, trying to find an escape route. He didn’t really want to get a valentine with all these people staring at him.

I’ve got a musical message to deliver to ’Arry Potter in person,” he said, kicking people's shins to get over to him and twanging his harp in a threatening sort of way.

“Not here,” Harry hissed, still trying to escape. All the other Gryffindor’s were staring at him curiously as he tried to get past them.

“Stay still!” grunted the dwarf, grabbing hold of Harry’s bag and pulling him back.

“Let me go!” Harry snarled, tugging. With a loud ripping noise, his bag split in two. His books, wand, parchment, and quill spilled onto the floor and his ink bottle smashed over everything.

He quickly ducked down and tried to pick up his things, everything was covered in ink.

“Right,” said the dwarf, sitting on Harry’s ankles. “Here is your singing valentine: His eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad; His hair is as dark as a blackboard. I wish he was mine, he’s really divine, the hero who conquered the Dark Lord.”

Everyone laughed loudly, Ron, Seamus and Neville came over to help him and Percy tried to disperse the crowd. And then, as if life couldn’t get any worse, Pansy Parkinson and Blaise Zabini walked over with matching grins and started picking up some of his stuff.

“Off you go, the bell rang five minutes ago” Percy shouted over the noise and shooed everyone off. “You too Zabini” Percy said looking over his shoulder.

“Wonder what’s in this Potter” Pansy Parkinson grinned and Harry realised she was holding Riddle’s diary.

He stood up quickly. Ron and Ginny Weasley were right behind him too. Neville looked like he was going to throw up all over Zabini’s robes, maybe the thought of fighting him was still scary.

“Hand it over,” said Percy sternly.

“After we’ve had a look” sneered Parkinson, waving the diary around tauntingly. Then it happened.

Neville threw up all over the floor. Taking a chance at the distraction Harry grabbed Riddle’s diary and glared at them.

Percy rushed into action immediately, shouting at the Slytherins to get to class and commanding Ron to tell a teacher about the sick as he helped Neville to the hospital wing.

Harry did feel a little bad though, he knew Neville hadn’t been keeping up with homework or anything lately. Maybe he was really sick… he would have to make sure Neville was okay later.

He checked over the diary as they continued their walk to class. It wasn’t until they had reached Professor Flitwick’s class that Harry noticed something rather odd about Riddle’s diary. All his other books were drenched in scarlet ink. The pages had turned red and, well pretty much everything was ruined.

The diary, however, was as clean as it had been before the ink bottle had smashed all over it. Once again, there was only a thin layer of red liquid over the front cover that made his hand red when he touched it, but the actual cover and the pages were completely clean. As if something was shielding the book itself. It was just like that black water on it in the bathroom.

He tried to tell Ron, but he was too busy trying to fix his wand.

-

That night, Harry wrote to the diary, it wrote back to him and showed him the memory of 50 years ago. He had to tell Hermione about this, his excitement and fascination over Riddle’s Diary had increased majorly. It had showed him so many things about 50 years ago he couldn’t believe it! But how could Hagrid be the Heir of Slytherin? And why could only he and his pet snake hear the monster around Hogwarts? It didn’t make sense.

Salazar, the newly named snake, had gone with him on his journey of the diary.

_“It’s ssssussspicoussss”_ Salazar said. _“He knew exactly where to go. Why wouldn’t he have sssaid ssssomething earlier?”_

Harry had to agree that there were a lot of plot holes in Riddles memory.

“I don’t suppose you’ll tell me what the voice is?” he asked Salazar.

The snake shook its head, _“you really don’t want to know.”_

Harry sighed.

He spoke to Ron and Hermione about the diary in the common room as soon as he could.

“We always knew Hagrid had been expelled,” said Harry miserably. “And the attacks must’ve stopped after Hagrid was kicked out. Otherwise, Riddle wouldn’t have got his award.”

“Riddle does sound like Percy though, who asked him to squeal on Hagrid, anyway?” said Ron.

“But the monster had killed someone, Ron,” said Hermione. “And Riddle was going to go back to some Muggle orphanage if they closed Hogwarts,” said Harry. “I don’t blame him for wanting to stay here...”

“Do you think we should go and ask Hagrid about it all?” Hermione asked hesitantly.

“That’d be a cheerful visit,” said Ron. “Hello, Hagrid. Tell us, have you been setting anything mad and hairy loose in the castle lately?”

In the end, they decided not to go to Hagrid unless there was another attack, Harry had started taking Salazar out with him every day, the little snake seemed to know when the monster was around even when Harry couldn’t hear it.

But as more and more days went by with no whisper from the disembodied voice, he became hopeful that the attacks had somehow stopped.

The attacks seemed to have come to a complete stop, Ron was convinced the Heir of Slytherin was just laying low and that they should keep an eye on Hagrid.

They met up with Draco in the library over the Easter holidays to talk about their choices for 3rd year. It was the first time he’d spoken to Draco properly since before Christmas, which was quite awkward.

But Draco looked really tired, like REALLY tired.

“How are you?” Harry asked.

“...I’m fine, how are you?” said Draco.

“Good, umm...” he didn’t really know what to say.

“Look about Christmas-” Draco started,

“Oh, don’t worry it’s fine I understand you were stressed right and you had to go home and-” he rambled.

“I’m sorry Harry, I was out of line and you shouldn’t accept anything but a full apology”

“...It’s fine” Harry repeated.  

Draco wasn’t really looking at him,

“Thank you for my present, he’s amazing” Harry smiled.

“What are you going to take in 3rd year Draco?” Hermione asked. Draco hummed thoughtfully.

“I suppose Ancient Runes… I haven’t tried Divination before, but I’ve heard some bad things about it so I’m not sure… Muggle studies would be interesting” Draco mused.

Hermione agreed immediately, “Oh yes I thought so too!”

“Why are you interested Hermione? You grew up in the muggle world” Ron huffed.

“Yes, but to see it from a wizarding point of view would be fascinating” she said. Harry smiled at his friends, it seemed both Hermione and Draco wanted to take all the subjects in third year.

“What about care for magical creatures?” Harry asked. Draco looked slightly horrified.

“Mm, I’m not that interested I guess” he said.

The Hufflepuff boy who Harry only knew as a friend of Draco’s popped up next to them.

“I love magical animals! I have loads of pet bugs I FOUND back at home!!” Harry couldn’t understand how the boy managed to make a perfect (^-^) face.

“Yes” said Draco. “And you named them Bug and Buggette…”  

“Don’t judge Bug!! He has big dreams!!!” the boy exclaimed.

Draco glared at his friend. “You’re not still looking for a magic scorpion to call Pincer, are you?” he growled.

“I will neither confirm nor deny it” smiled the Hufflepuff.

Harry couldn’t really follow their conversation, but he was glad Draco was talking to people more… He seemed really stressed though, maybe he wasn’t sleeping.

In the end Hermione signed up for every class, Draco signed up for every class except divination and care for magical creatures and Harry chose the same new subjects as Ron, feeling that if he was lousy at them, at least he’d have someone friendly to help him.

He looked forward to the next Quidditch match against Hufflepuff, the new guy on the team was Draco’s friend who he now knew was named ‘Jack.’ He was a tough keeper to get past so Wood had insisted on practices every night after dinner. He was feeling good about the match though… at least until Sunday evening.

He went up to his dormitory to drop off his broomstick and at the top of the stairs to the dormitory, he met Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan, the two of them looked frantic. “Harry! something’s happened, we don’t know who did it but-” they opened the door carefully.

The contents of Harry’s trunk had been thrown everywhere.

Harry walked over to the bed, open-mouthed.  

Ron walked in and swore loudly. “What happened, Harry?”

“No idea,” he said. But Ron was examining Harry’s robes. All the pockets were hanging out.

“Someone’s been looking for something,” said Ron. “Is there anything missing?” Harry started to pick up all his things and throw them into his trunk. It was only as he threw the last of the Lockhart books back into it that he realized what wasn’t there.

“Riddle’s diary’s gone,” he said in an undertone to Ron.

“What?” Ron gasped.

They walked downstairs to the common room which was half-empty, and joined Hermione, who was sitting alone, reading a book called Ancient Runes Made Easy.

Hermione looked aghast at the news. “But, only a Gryffindor could have stolen, nobody else knows the password, and only a male student could get up the stairs to the male dormitory...”

“Exactly,” said Harry.

                           --------------------------------

"What are you doing" Draco asked.

Terry jumped and swung around, “NOTHING!” he screamed.

“...because that’s convincing” sighed Draco. Terry was carrying a box of something into the Ravenclaw common room at like 7am. Not suspicious at all.

“Ummm-” he was cut off by a squawk from the box.

“...”

“I may have adopted some roosters” said Terry.

“You couldn’t adopt cats like a normal Ravenclaw” sighed Draco.

“Noooooo, they keep getting strangled out on the grounds by someone and I did some research and birds are actually really smart and have loads of uses you know, they are like an alarm clock, and they scare of predators, their call is even fatal to Basilisks, so they have loads of uses for magic too, and I don’t like animals dying, it makes me sad so I asked Hagrid if I could have them and-”

“Wait. What did you just say?” Draco blinked.

“I don’t like animals dying?”

“No before that, they are fatal to Basilisks? As in, the giant fucking snake that is the most Slytherin symbol ever.” said Draco.

“Ummm, yeah?” questioned Terry.

“I’m an idiot. Why was I put in Ravenclaw?” Said Draco. “And you should hide those before people come down for the Quidditch game” he sighed.

“Where are you going?” asked Terry.

“Library” Draco said walking out of the common room.

“Oh, Luna’s there too, say hi from me” he called.

He walked to the library quickly. ‘ _Fucking, what the fuck why couldn’t I work that out, am I that fucking stupid, of course it’s a giant fucking snake. Fucking fuck.’_

Luna waved at him as he walked past her, he waved back half-heartedly and went to the magical creature’s section of the library. There.

He opened the book and skimmed the pages until he got to the one on Basilisks, King of the serpents, it’s stare can kill, a rooster’s call is fatal.

He sighed and tore the page out of the book. If the librarian saw him do that he’d be so dead.

“You shouldn’t do that” said Luna, who had crept up next to him. He turned to her, she didn’t look judgemental, more curious, but her eyes pierced straight through him.

“It’s important” said Draco.

“I can see that, there is so much negative energy around you… let me just-” she said, and started pinching the air around him and throwing it over her shoulder. Her bottlecap necklace rattled with the movement.

“Thanks, I need to go see Professor McGonagall or Professor Snape” he said.

“That may help the cause but not give the solution” Luna smiled and followed him out of the library. He turned a corner straight into Hermione who jumped in surprise.

“Oh Draco! The chamber monster, it’s a basilisk! I’m quite sure of it!!” she said.

“Yes, it is" Draco agreed… "Why aren’t you in Ravenclaw?” he muttered. He took out the page he’d tore out of the library book and handed it to her, “can you take this to Professor McGonagall? Or, whoever you Gryffindor’s go to in these situations.”

Hermione scanned the page and smiled brightly, “of course, it all makes sense,” she took out a quill and scribbled something on the page before pocketing it. “The quidditch match has started already so I’ll head there, come with us after and we can sort everything out” she said.

Draco nodded, but he’d prefer to leave it to the golden trio. They obviously didn’t even need him with Hermione there, how the hell did she figure it out anyway, it took a comment from Terry for him to realise.

Hermione pulled out a mirror and ran off down the hall, Luna jumped out of her usual dreamy gaze.

“Oh, look at that omen shrouding you, it’s wonderful!” Luna called and chased after her.

Draco blinked, omen? What did she mean by that? He followed down the hall quickly, they’d ran out of sight, but a feeling of dread came upon him.  

If Hermione was going to the quidditch match they would have gone this way, he thought. It was probably better to stay together, but if Luna saw an omen, that had to mean something bad. Because Luna was never wrong about these things.

He turned the corner.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cliffhanger!! MUWAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHA HAHA


	12. Apologising

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kind of short chapter, and mostly just the aftermath of the last chapter. But the final three chapters should be very interesting at least :3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Draco swears a lot in his own head...

**Chapter 12**

Harry had a strange feeling… the feeling that something was about to go horribly horribly wrong.

_“I hear it”_ hissed Salazar the snake under his quidditch robes.

Harry froze. Not now. Not during Quidditch!

“You ready?” asked Oliver Wood.

Harry nodded numbly.

He walked out onto the pitch, and glanced up to Gryffindor box, Ron was there alone, and his fear only grew.

 Professor McGonagall walked towards them and cancelled the game

“You might want to follow me Mr Potter” she said gravely. Harry held his breath.

Harry took a deep breath as they followed Professor McGonagall to the hospital wing.

He could hear Neville whimpering to himself from one of the hospital beds, after he had thrown up on valentine's day Madam Pomfrey had been told to stay in the hospital wing due to stress… but it seemed like that plan was backfiring.

“This will be a bit of a shock,” said Professor McGonagall in a surprisingly gentle voice. “There has been another attack . . . another double attack.” Harry’s insides did a horrible somersault as they walked to the end of the room.

Madam Pomfrey was bending over a first-year girl with straight, blonde hair. Harry recognized her as the Ravenclaw girl Draco often spoke to in the great hall.

And on the bed next to her was —

“Hermione!” Ron groaned. Hermione lay utterly still, her eyes open and glassy. “They were found near the library by Mr. Malfoy” said Professor McGonagall.

“Draco?” Harry said. “Is he okay, where is he?”

McGonagall raised a hand for silence, “he is unharmed, but quite shaken.” she said.

“I don’t suppose either of you can explain this? It was on the floor next to them...” She was holding up a small, circular mirror. Harry and Ron shook their heads, both staring at Hermione. “I will escort you back to Gryffindor Tower,” said Professor McGonagall heavily. “I need to address the students in any case.”

-

Draco felt as though he couldn’t breathe.

Hermione had been petrified! Luna had been petrified! Luna had followed Hermione to help! Damnit Luna!!

And what the fuck did I do. I fucking fainted. That’s what I did. This is why I can’t deal with this fucking Gryffindor shit.

He received a message from his mother saying his father was planning to arrest Hagrid on suspicion that he was the killer… and Dumbledore was going to be relieved from the position of Headmaster until further notice. Mother said she was taking care of it but…

He sat in the common room, trying not to look like he was having a mental breakdown.

From the looks he was getting he was failing miserably.

“Um Draco.”

It was that Davis guy he’d shouted at earlier in the year.

“What?” he said.

“I’m really sorry what I said about Lovegood, she, isn’t that strange really… and she didn’t deserve to be…” Davis was stuttering out an apology.

Draco nodded, “she didn’t” he agreed.

The atmosphere in the common room had turned cold and still, the other students were starting to realise that Luna wasn’t muggleborn, that meant other students could be petrified too.

Terry sat down next to him and put a hand on his shoulder, his robes were clucking, as unsuspiciously as possible. “We’ll get through this” he said.

Draco nodded.

The teachers escorted them to every class and there were rumours going around that Blaise was the culprit because of how cheery he was… not that Blaise tried to deny any of these rumours he relished in being able to make everyone run from him in the halls.

Crabbe and Goyle had started sitting with him at the Ravenclaw table because they preferred it.

 He hadn’t even seen Harry and Ron for the past few days, although he did notice Ron freaking out over spiders a few times.

The only person in the castle who didn’t look terrified was Lockhart.

He had begun talking to people in a very patronising voice, as if they were all foolish to be as scared as they were.

“Don’t you people realize,” said Lockhart “the danger has passed! The culprit has been taken away the Minister of Magic wouldn’t have taken Hagrid if he hadn’t been one hundred percent sure that he was guilty,” said Lockhart, in the tone of someone explaining that one and one made two.

“Oh, yes he would,” said Draco, thinking of his father. He’d arrested Hagrid to make Dumbledore seem incompetent. Then Dumbledore would be gone, and the Basilisk could go wild. FUCK, he hadn’t told McGonagall it was a Basilisk, he was distracted by the petrifications.

Lockhart glared at him, “You know Mr. Weasley said the same thing and I’ll tell you the same reply, I’m quite sure I know more about Hagrid’s arrest than you do, Mr. Malfoy,” said Lockhart in a self-satisfied tone.

-

Three days before their first exam a howler dropped down in front of him at breakfast… as if he needed something to put him in a worse mood, it was from his father.

He knew ignoring it would make it worse and the other Ravenclaws were looking at him with stunned faces. He shrugged at them and opened it staring passively at the letter as it shouted at him.

All the other students were staring. Draco didn’t care anymore. Let them see how it was, his father truly hated him.

“---WORTHLESS, USELESS, YOU’RE THE SON I NEVER WANTED---”

The words were slurred, and he was sure everyone in the hall could tell that his father was drunk when he sent it, he cast confringo on the paper before it finished. The Slytherin table burst into laughter…

It seemed his father was losing his pureblood credibility. His mother had seemed convinced that Lucius loved him and wouldn’t endanger his family… but his father seemed to be doing his best to go against that theory.

Harry looked over at him, Harry had often been trying to catch up with him lately, but Draco had avoided him, if he spoke to Harry he would have to admit he knew about his father… if he did that then Harry would charge in and try to fight a Basilisk. And of course, he would do that. He’s a Gryffindor.

Hermione had already been petrified and Dumbledore wasn’t even here, so there was nothing he could do anymore.

He looked up when Michael nudged him.

“I have good news,” said Professor McGonagall, and the Great Hall, instead of falling silent, erupted into shouts of wanting Dumbledore to return.  

“Professor Sprout has informed me that the Mandrakes are ready for cutting at last. Tonight, we will be able to revive those people who have been Petrified. I need hardly remind you all that one of them may well be able to tell us who, or what, attacked them. I am hopeful that this dreadful year will end with our catching the culprit,” said Professor McGonagall.

There was an explosion of cheering.

Draco glanced over to the Slytherin table and wasn’t at all surprised to see that Zabini hadn’t joined in. But some of the other Slytherins looked relieved, obviously they too had started to become fearful of the monster, after all Luna wasn’t muggleborn and she had been...

He saw Neville, Colin and Ginny walking over to Harry and Ron nervously… he couldn’t hear what they were saying but Colin looked as though he was trying to support Neville and it looked important. Then Percy Weasley came over and Neville ran away. Draco stood up and followed after him out of the Great Hall.

“Neville! Wait up!” he called, Neville looked almost like he had been petrified.

“Draco I don’t know what to do!” he whimpered. “Harry found the diary so I… and now Hermione! HERMIONE! Has been petrified! ...I!” he whined low in his throat and ran off in a random direction. Colin shot off after him.

Ginny stayed behind and gave him a hard glare.

Then she burst into tears.

“Draco, please I know we don’t know each other that well but you have to help Neville! I don’t know what’s going on and he keeps talking about this book and Colin just keeps saying to keep an eye on him and he looks so stressed! Draco, I think he wanted to say something earlier but every time I go to look for him he’s just gone!! Please tell me what’s going on!” She was shaking, and tears streamed down her face. Draco put his hands on her shoulders to steady her.

“Ginny. Okay, I think Neville is being possessed but… I need to go find Harry and Ron now. I will send a letter to you and your brothers Fred and George as soon as I know something alright. Everything will be fine I promise” He said. Ginny nodded and blinked away the tears. She pulled him into a hug then shuffled off in the direction Neville and Colin had ran.

Draco also didn’t know what to do… he had wanted to help Neville and he had ended up making things worse… he walked to the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey didn’t even stop him as he sat down next to Hermione and Luna… He had to talk to Harry…

…

“follow the spiders, follow the spiders, if Hagrid ever gets out of Azkaban I’ll kill him."

"enough Ron we need to go see Draco" sighed Harry.

“But Harry, he bloody shouted at you, for no reason,” said Ron.

I… yes, he did, he shouted at me.” said Harry, “but you weren’t there, you didn’t see how he looked that day, he was… it was like he hadn’t slept for a week. Or… like Hermione that time she thought she was going to fail her exam. I’ve never seen him look so panicked before…

“Still doesn’t excuse what he said to you” huffed Ron

“True, but he isn’t the first person to shout at me, and he did buy me a Christmas present, so I think I’m prepared to forgive him, he already apologised anyway...”

“I still don’t see why we should talk to him” said Ron.

“Professor McGonagall said he was the one that found Hermione and the other girl, he might have seen something.” replied Harry.

“Or he might have caused it” snarked Ron.

Harry glared at him hard

 

-

Draco didn’t look up when they came in.

“How have you been?” Harry said, he looked surprised. “We heard from Professor McGonagall that it was you who found Hermione, we’ve been wanting to ask you about it.”  

Draco carefully took the piece of paper from Hermione’s hand and held it up to them, Harry took it hesitantly. He’d found it like 5 minutes ago, he should have just taken it himself, instead of giving it to Hermione...

He started to speak before he chickened out. “We were both in the library, but Hermione bolted off without me… I should have gone with her” he said. Harry looked at the paper in his hands with wide eyes.

_‘A basilisk… trust Hermione to figure out everything_ ’ Harry thought.

He and Ron gave each other resolved looks.

“… This is my fault” Draco said. They looked puzzled, so he explained. “It’s the diary, the one you found before. I accidently handed it to Neville at Flourish and Blotts, the diary… it controlled him. When I found out I tried to get rid of it but then you picked it up” he said.

“In the girl’s bathroom! But… my room was destroyed, and it went missing again” Harry exclaimed.

“I think that was Neville, he saw you with it and panicked…”

I think…” He took a breath, “I think it’s my father's” Draco said in nearly a whisper.

Harry was suddenly pulling him into a hug. “This isn’t your fault, your father’s an asshole…. I thought I saw him throw the book onto Neville’s pile that day they were fighting in Flourish and Blotts... But I wasn’t sure, so I didn’t say anything so, it’s more my fault than yours” he said.

“I’m sorry I’ve been avoiding you, I’m not good at being stressed...” Draco said, “I didn’t want you to run headfirst into danger or something stupid like that… I’m sorry.” he whispered.

“It’s fine Draco, we just have to tell the teacher’s everything we know, they can take care of it. First we’ll go to McGonagall” Harry said. “Will you come with us?”

Draco nodded. He didn’t want anyone else getting hurt.

“Wait! Pipes!” Ron suddenly said. “The entrance to the Chamber of Secrets!” he said hoarsely. “What if it’s a bathroom? What if it’s in-”

“Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom!” said Harry.  “This means, I can’t be the only Parselmouth in the school. The Heir of Slytherin’s one, too. That’s how he’s been controlling the basilisk.”

“Let’s go to the staffroom right now” said Harry, pulling Draco with them. “McGonagall will be there in ten minutes. It’s nearly break.”

The three of them walked downstairs and went straight into the deserted staffroom. Harry and Ron paced around it, too excited to sit down, Draco leant against the wall nervously.

“I should have guessed it was a Basilisk” muttered Harry. “That’s why only me and Sal could hear it”

“You can hear it?” said Draco at the same time as Ron looked at Harry in confusion and said, “who’s Sal?”

The little snake slid up Harry’s collar out of his robes.

Ron screamed.

“...Why the hell did you name him Sal?” Draco asked raising an eyebrow.

“Don’t judge me!!” said Harry, “it’s short for Salazar and it’s Ron’s fault, he just really likes the name.”  

Professor McGonagall’s voice echoed through the corridors, magically magnified. “All students to return to their House dormitories at once. All teachers return to the staffroom. Immediately, please.”

Harry wheeled around to stare at them. “Not another attack? Not now.”

“What’ll we do?” said Ron, aghast, he carefully put himself behind Draco, far away from the snake who was hanging around Harry’s neck like a scarf. “Go back to the dormitory?”

“No,” said Harry, glancing around. “In here” he said pulling them towards the nearby wardrobe and shoving them inside.

“Why don’t we just tell them?” said Draco.

“Shhhh” said Ron.

They watched as the teachers entered the staffroom.

Professor McGonagall walked in. “A student has been taken by the monster.” Her voice remained steady, but she had turned a shade paler than usual.

 Draco watched Severus grip the back of a chair very hard, “How can you be sure?” he said.

“The Heir of Slytherin, whoever it may be, they left another message. Right underneath the first one. ‘His skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever.’ Two first year Gryffindor students found the message just now.”

Professor Flitwick burst into tears.

“Who is it?” said Madam Hooch, who had sunk, weak-kneed, into a chair. “Which student?”

 “Neville Longbottom,” said Professor McGonagall.  Draco let out a breath. Harry and Ron looked slightly ill next to him.

We shall have to send all the students home tomorrow,” said Professor McGonagall. “This is the end of Hogwarts. Dumbledore always said...”

The staffroom door banged open again.

“So sorry I’m late, what have I missed?” said Lockhart beaming. The other teachers were looking at him with something remarkably like hatred.

Snape stepped forward with a cruel smile.

“Just the man,” he said. “The very man. A boy has been snatched by the monster, Lockhart. Your moment has come at last.”

Draco held back a laugh despite himself, he probably wanted the monster to eat Lockhart.

“That’s right, Gilderoy,” chipped in Professor Sprout. “Weren’t you saying just last night that you’ve known all along where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is?”

“I... Oh… Well,” sputtered Lockhart.

“Yes, didn’t you tell me you were sure you knew what was inside it?” piped up Professor Flitwick.

“O-oh did I? I don’t recall…”

“I certainly remember you saying you were sorry you hadn’t had a crack at the monster before Hagrid was arrested,” said Snape.

Lockhart laughed nervously as he looked around the room.

“We’ll leave it to you, then, Gilderoy,” said Professor McGonagall, her mouth was pressed into a thin line. “Tonight, will be an excellent time to do it. We’ll make sure everyone’s out of your way. You’ll be able to tackle the monster all by yourself.”

Lockhart let out a short laugh and gazed desperately around him, his bottom lip was trembling.

“V-very well,” he said. “I- I’ll be in my office, getting, getting ready.”

And he left the room.

“Right,” said Professor McGonagall, whose nostrils were flared, “now we’ve got rid of the oaf. The Heads of Houses should go and inform the students of what has happened. Tell them that the Hogwarts Express will be taking them home first thing tomorrow morning and will the rest of you please make sure no students have been left outside of their dormitories.” The teachers rose and left, one by one.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Salazar the snakes new nickname is Sal :3 and when the Slytherins find out Harry nicknamed his pet snake after the great Salazar Slytherin they won't be very happy.


	13. Down to the chamber

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I didn't update earlier, I had final exams and final essays. The next update will be on Wednesday/Thursday though so you don't have long to wait at least. ^-^

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry to anyone who hasn't watched the 'Very Potter Musicals' by Starkid because there are so many references in this and they will confuse the fuck out of you.   
> To those who have watched it... have fun.

**Chapter 13**

 

“Damnit! Neville tried to tell us at breakfast! Stupid Percy got in the way” Ron ranted, “What are we going to do now? They’re going to check we are in our common rooms.”

“We should talk to Lockhart, if he’s going into the chamber we can at least tell him what we know” Harry said.

Draco turned to Harry slowly and gave him his best, _‘you’re an idiot_ ’ face. “that idiot’s not going into the chamber.”

Ron and Harry gave him confused looks, “guys… he was lying, he’s going to make a run for it” Draco huffed.

“He wouldn’t do that… would he?” Harry asked.

Draco patted Harry on the head, the poor naive child.

Harry knocked his hand away. “We can’t go now anyway, let’s meet at Lockhart’s office at 6pm, at least that way no one will catch us out of our dorms and Lockhart… well he should still be there.” he muttered.

“But how will Draco sneak out? I mean we have… the cloak but” said Harry.

“It’ll be easy” said Draco, he knew the secret passageways, Fred and George knew every passage in the castle, and even some that led out of the castle. Although he was curious what ‘the cloak’ they had was...

Draco went back to the Ravenclaw common room.

The Raven opened the door for him immediately, before he even gave an answer to the riddle.

**I am courageous and brave**

**If you cross me, you will hear my roar**

**No matter who you are I will protect you**

**Because that’s what friends are for**

 

Professor Flitwick entered and told them all of the events he already knew. When he left again to ‘stand guard’ Draco asked Padma if he could borrow her owl and sent a letter. He only hoped it reached the receiver in time.

Then he went into the Ravenclaw bathroom and moved one of the statues to the side, a staircase led downwards and should take him to the floor below. He waited for Harry and Ron outside of the DADA classroom.

Darkness was falling when they appeared.

“We shouldn’t be going to Lockhart, this is the worst idea” Draco muttered.

He could hear loud crashes inside of Lockhart’s office and the sound of Lockhart muttering to himself. Harry knocked slowly.

The room went silent.

Then the door opened the tiniest crack and one of Lockhart’s eyes peered through it.

“Oh, Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley… and, Mr. Malfoy” he said, opening the door a bit wider. “I’m afraid I’m rather busy at the moment, I’m sure you understand.”

“Professor, we’ve got some information for you,” said Harry. “We think it’ll help you.”

“Well you see, I’m afraid now might not be the best time...” Lockhart looked very uncomfortable, although Draco couldn’t see his whole face. He seemed to finally relent and muttered “I mean, well, all right”, opening the door for them.

“As I thought” Draco said looking around the almost empty room, it had been stripped almost completely, two large trunks stood open on the floor. Lockhart whipped around the room and began folding his robes and stuffing them into the trunks.  

“Draco was right! You are running away!” Harry exclaimed. Draco sighed, ‘h _e’s been useless all year and you expected him to go up against a basilisk?’_ he thought.

Lockhart coughed nervously, “w-well I’m afraid I got quite an urgent call… unavoidable really” he said starting to roll up a life-sized poster of himself.

“And what about Neville?” Draco growled.

“Ah yes, most unfortunate, no one regrets more than I, but then he wasn’t very good anyway was he...”

“You’re the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher!” said Harry growling, “you’re just going to leave?”

“Leave it Harry, he’s a fake anyway. He didn’t even do the things he wrote about in his books” said Draco.

“Ah, yes, well books can be misleading” agreed Lockhart busting around the room and shoving more things into boxes.  

“What do you mean? He wrote them!” said Harry…

“Do you think people would do that, just go on the internet and tell lies” Draco muttered, thinking of a very old meme…

Lockhart looked up and stared at Harry with a serious expression, “My dear boy, please use your common sense. My books wouldn’t have sold half as well if people didn’t think I’d done all those things. You think people would want to read about some ugly old Armenian warlock who saved a village from werewolves. He’d look dreadful on the front cover. No dress sense at all”

“So, you’ve just been taking credit for what a load of other people have done?” said Harry incredulously. “And you knew Draco?” he said turning to him.

“Well, yeah. I mean, half the things he writes about in his books have incorrect facts anyway. He doesn’t even check things before he writes, he just goes with what sounds most exciting” he huffed.

“Harry, Harry,” said Lockhart, glaring at Draco and shaking his head impatiently, “it’s not nearly as simple as that. There was work involved. I had to find these people. Ask them what they did. Then I had to put a Memory Charm on them, so they wouldn’t remember doing it. If there’s one thing I pride myself on, it’s my Memory Charms. It’s hard work, Harry. It’s not all book signings and publicity photos, you know. You want fame, you have to be prepared for a long hard slog.” He banged the lids of his trunks shut and locked them.

Harry looked pissed.

“Now that I’ve told you my secrets I’ll have to put a Memory Charm on you now.” Lockhart said turning around and pointing his wand at them “Can’t have you blabbing my secrets all over the place. I’d never sell another book”.

Harry whipped out his wand and cut him off bellowing, “Expelliarmus!”

Lockhart was blasted backward, falling over his trunk; his wand flew high into the air; Ron caught it, and flung it out of the open window.

Harry looked furious and kicked Lockhart’s trunk aside.

‘ _I wish I’d done that’_ thought Draco, he would love to curse Lockhart into next century. Lockhart was looking up at them feebly.  

“I don’t know what you expect me to do now” said Lockhart weakly. “I don’t know where the Chamber of Secrets is. There’s nothing I can do.”

“You’re in luck,” said Harry, forcing Lockhart to his feet at wand-point. “We think we know where it is. And what’s inside it. Let’s go.”

“Boys, boys, don’t be so rash now” Lockhart whined as they dragged him out of his office.

“Why are we taking him with us?” asked Draco. “You realise he is going to cause us more harm than good right?” he said as they marched Lockhart down to Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom.

“He’ll make a great human shield” muttered Ron darkly as Lockhart whimpered.

Moaning Myrtle was sitting on the tank of the end toilet. “Oh, it’s you,” she said when she saw them. “What do you want this time?”

“Myrtle, could you tell us how you died?” asked Draco. Myrtle giggled and looked as though she had never been asked such a flattering question.

“Ooooh, it was dreadful,” she said with relish. “I died in this very stall. I remember it so well. I’d hidden because Olive Hornby was teasing me about my glasses. The door was locked, and I was crying, and then I heard somebody come in. They said something funny. A different language, I think it must have been. Anyway, what really got me was that it was a boy speaking. So, I unlocked the door, to tell him to go and use his own toilet, and then...” Myrtle swelled importantly, her face shining. “I died.”

“How?” said Harry.

“I just remember seeing a pair of great, big, yellow eyes. Over there by that sink. My whole body sort of seized up, and then I was floating away...” She looked at Draco with a dreamy smile. “And then I came back again. I was determined to haunt Olive Hornby, you see. Oh, she was sorry she’d ever laughed at my glasses.”

They hurried over to the sinks and started to examine every inch of it, including the pipes below.

There, scratched on the side of one of the copper taps was a tiny snake. “That tap has never worked,” said Myrtle brightly as Harry tried to turn it.

“Say something. Something in Parseltongue.” said Ron.

“Oh right!” Harry said, Salazar the snake popped out of his sleeve. Lockhart screamed.

“Shut up” growled Draco at him harshly.

Harry nodded at his snake and hissed at the sink, the tap glowed with a brilliant white light and began to spin. Then the sink moved down out of sight and left a large pipe, a pipe big enough for them to slide down.

“I’m going down there,” Harry said, the snake slithered around his neck loosely.

Draco turned to Lockhart who muttered. “Well, you hardly seem to need me, I’ll just leave” He put his hand on the doorknob, but Ron and Harry both pointed their wands at him.

“You can go first,” Ron snarled. White-faced and wandless, Lockhart approached the opening.

_‘Lockhart’s going to be just about as useful as i am down here’_ Draco thought, ‘ _I’m a coward in all dangerous situations.’_ He sighed, there was no helping it, if he didn’t go he would feel guilty forever.

“Boys, what good will it do?” Lockhart asked feebly as he was pushed over. Harry jabbed him in the back with his wand and he slid out of sight down the pipe. They heard a thud, “it really is filthy down here” they heard Lockhart call up.

Ron gave him a look.

“Come on Ron, just remember, if we’re all in this together, you can bet on it we’re breaking free” Harry said sliding down the pipe.

Draco followed after Ron giving a wave to Myrtle who said very positively, “If you die down there, you’re welcome to share my toilet.”

They were all getting to their feet when Draco reached the bottom of the long winding pipe. Harry was hissing to Salazar softly; the snake was shivering.

“We must be miles under the school,” said Draco, his voice echoing in the black tunnel.

“Lumos!” Harry muttered to his wand and it lit up brightly.

“Remember,” Harry said quietly as they walked cautiously forward, “any sign of movement, close your eyes right away...”

Draco nodded, _‘I’m so going to die’_ he thought, ‘ _Moaning Myrtle wouldn’t be a bad roommate for the rest of my life… at least I’ve already lived once’._

“Harry — there’s something up there —” said Ron hoarsely, grabbing Harry’s shoulder. They froze, watching. Something huge and curved was lying right across the tunnel. It wasn’t moving.

Draco breathed, “I think it’s just a snake skin”, it was shiny. Lockhart’s hands were pressed over his eyes.

“If that’s the skin I would hate to see the real thing” Ron muttered weakly.

There was a sudden movement behind them. Gilderoy Lockhart fell to the ground in the most overly dramatic way possible.

Then he shot up and dived at Ron, wrestling his wand out of his hands and jumping up. A gleaming smile back on his face.

“The adventure ends here, boys!” he said. “I shall take a bit of this skin back up to the school, tell them I was too late to save the boy, and that you tragically lost your minds at the sight of his mangled body”

“Lockhart, don’t do this, is being the hero really more important than saving lives?” Draco snapped.

“This is far more important than some silly hero worship my dear boy, when people see me I am a vision, a hope for mankind! It is my dream to lead the people, I will lead them into a new generation, and then, leave the realm of men behind me! I will be Gilderoy, THE MOUSE PRINCE!

“...what the crap?” said Ron.

Harry raised his wand and shouted “Expelliarmus!”

Just as Lockhart screamed, “Obliviate!”

The wand exploded, and the spells hit together with the force of a small bomb.

Someone grabbed his arm and pulled him quickly, slipping over the coils of snakeskin, and running out of the way of great chunks of tunnel ceiling that were thundering to the floor. “You alright?” Harry asked, breathing hard. Draco nodded looking up at the solid wall of broken rock.

“Ron!” Harry shouted. “Are you okay? Ron!”

“I’m here!” came Ron’s muffled voice from behind the rockfall. “I’m okay — this git isn’t though — he got blasted into the wall, a bunch of rocks fell on him.”

There was a dull thud and a loud “ow!” It sounded as though Ron had just kicked Lockhart in the shins. “He sounds alive at least, I’ll try and get the rocks off him. What now?” Ron’s voice said, sounding desperate.

“We can’t get through, it’ll take ages...” said Draco, he looked up at the tunnel ceiling. Huge cracks had appeared in it. They couldn’t do anything now; the whole tunnel would cave in if they tried to use magic on the rocks… _‘even moving them will be worrying’_ he thought.

There was another thud and another “ow!” from behind the rocks.

“Ron, wait with Lockhart, or see if there is a way back” Harry called to Ron. “We’ll go on... If we’re not back in an hour, then...” Harry looked nervous.

 “I’ll see if there is another way through this rock,” said Ron, his voice wavering as he spoke. “So, you two can... can get back through.”

“See you in a bit,” said Harry, he didn’t sound confident. Draco followed him, Harry was looking ahead with a very resolved look… Draco was still pretty sure they were all going to die…

‘ _This is why I’m not a Gryffindor’_ he thought. Soon the distant noise of Ron straining to shift the rocks was gone. The tunnel turned and turned again, the atmosphere was dark and grisly with only the sound of dripping water echoing around them.

Harry really did look nervous, Draco though, he was shaking and hissing quietly under his breath. ‘ _Oh right_ ,’ the hissing was to Salazar who seemed to be shaking under Harry’s robes and making Harry look twice as shaky.

Draco didn’t say anything as they approached a large door covered in serpent statues, it was really amazing watching Harry turn all saviour like this…

Harry cleared his throat and hissed. The serpent statues in front of them parted as the wall cracked open, the halves slid smoothly out of sight and they walked inside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :c it's hard to do this part of the story because there isn't much deviation from the plot. Just Draco making snarky comments... Third Year will deviate a lot more :3 
> 
> Also the riddle is super corny. <. >


	14. Riddle and the Basilisk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So, this is like the main climax of the story.   
> And I changed it like 7 times. And I still don't know if I like how it ended up so...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for Tom Riddle's constant monologues, it seemed like important dialogue that I couldn't just remove from the story so I tried to work around it?   
> Oh, also warning for Draco's constant swearing throughout the chapter. I like to think that he is the type to start swearing out loud a lot when he is angry/scared instead of just in his head.

**Chapter 14**

They walked slowly, the tunnel was dark and damp with only the sound of their footsteps echoing. 

Harry had started hissing to Salazar again, possibly trying to calm the snake or just trying to calm himself down. 

To be fair, Draco was half expecting the Basilisk to come out of nowhere and murder them, as they walked around a pillar they came upon a large statue, he recognised it as Salazar Slytherin despite its water worn state. 

And on the ground by the statue, curled up into a ball was Neville. 

Harry gasped immediately, and ran over to him.  

He was looking blue from the cold water that coated the floor. 

“Neville, don’t be dead, please don’t be dead” Harry said flinging his wand aside and checking for Neville’s heartbeat.

“He’s… he’s still alive but…” Harry said, Draco could see, he was stiff as the petrified students in the hospital wing but his eyes were closed so he couldn’t have been petrified.... right?

“He won’t wake,” said a soft voice. They both jumped and Draco turned to look behind him. A tall, black-haired boy was leaning against the nearest pillar, watching. He was strangely blurred around the edges. But there was no mistaking him —

“Tom. Tom Riddle?” exclaimed Harry. Draco shuddered. “What d’you mean, he won’t wake?” Harry said desperately. “He’s not dead, right?”

“Oh, he’s still alive,” said Riddle. “But only just.” 

“Are you a ghost?” Harry said uncertainly.

“No Harry, he isn’t a ghost, he’s a memory” Draco said, the usual feeling of fear crept up on him as it always did when he thought of Voldemort.

Riddle smiled cruelly, “Yes, preserved in a diary for fifty years.”

“Horcrux” Draco whispered. He knew about them, anyone who was alive after the war knew… but to see one here. Now. He shuddered again.

Harry started to stand up but Draco held him back.

“Don’t go near him” He said quietly.

“What why?” Harry questioned, “He might be able to help with Neville… right?”

Draco shook his head and squeezed his eyes shut. “No… Harry that’s Voldemort!”

Harry stared at him so he elaborated.

“Tom Marvolo Riddle. That was Voldemort’s real name Harry.”

The memory of Riddle laughed at them. “You truly are the smart one aren’t you, although trying to destroy my diary with a blasting spell was a bit rude” he smiled cruelly and leaned down to pick up Harry’s wand.

"What the fuck Harry! Why would you throw your wand away?!?" Draco hissed at the idiot Gryffindor. 

Harry looked sheepish and bit his lip. 

“You want to know what happened to your little friend” Riddle said twiddling the wand. “it’s quite a long story. I suppose the real reason Neville Longbottom is like this is because he opened his heart and spilled all his worries to an invisible stranger.”

Harry paused, “What are you talking about?” he asked.

“The diary,” said Draco, “Neville’s been writing in it for months now, Riddle used it to control him” he said, what could they do at this point? He could throw a spell at Riddle but he was a memory, how does that even work? How could they bring Neville out of his control?

“Oh yes” said Riddle “telling me all his pitiful worries and woes, how his friends are sooo smart, how he was falling behind in all his classes and picked on by teachers, how he didn’t think he was good enough to be friends with famous, Harry Potter or deserve the kindness of his smart friend, Draco Malfoy. I was patient. I wrote back. I was sympathetic, I was kind. Neville simply loved me. No one’s ever understood what it’s like Tom, to be a pureblood so bad at magic... Of course, I had to tell a few lies myself to let him warm up to me but but he believed them all.”

Riddle laughed, a high, cold laugh that didn’t suit him. It made the hairs stand up on the back of Draco’s neck. 

“I’ve always been able to charm people. And as Neville poured his soul into me I grew stronger. Far more powerful than that little boy. Powerful enough to start feeding him a few of my secrets, to start pouring a little of my soul back into him...”

“What d’you mean?” asked Harry. 

Draco rolled his eyes. Obviously Harry was just going to listen to Voldemort's entire damn monologue wasn’t he. 

“Haven’t you guessed yet, Harry Potter?” said Riddle softly. “You heard what your friend said about me, you must know the truth by now. Neville opened the Chamber of Secrets. He strangled the school roosters and wrote threatening messages on the walls. He set the Serpent of Slytherin on the students.”

“No, that wasn’t him” Harry said sternly.

“It was,” said Riddle, calmly.

“No, he didn’t know what he was doing he wanted to get rid of you” Draco said. Riddle’s eyes flashed with anger.  

“And that’s where you came in, Draco Malfoy, you tried to get rid of it! Tried to destroy me! For that you will pay," he said twiddling Harry's wand, "but Neville wrote about you too, and said you were powerful, so my first business is with the famous Harry Potter. Then I'll deal with you," he said. Then turned to Harry as though Draco wasn't even there. 

"You see, I couldn’t have been more delighted that you were the one to pick up my diary, the very person I was most anxious to meet...”

“I don't get it," said Harry, if you’re really Voldemort then don't you just want to kill me?” said Harry. Draco could hear his voice wavering. 

Riddle growled. 

Draco sighed and looked around, hmm attack Dark Lord Voldemort and hope he doesn't block because he's too focused on Harry? Or wait for him to finish fucking monologuing and try and get Harry's wand back? 

“--How could you, a mere infant kill the greatest wizard of all time? Kill me!” he shouted. “Neville told me all about you, Harry,” said Riddle. “Your whole fascinating history, at first I tried to gain your trust by showing you my capture of that oaf Hagrid” he said. 

“Hagrid’s my friend” shouted Harry, his voice now shaking.

Riddle laughed his high laugh again. “It was my word against Hagrid’s, Harry. Only Dumbledore was suspicious of me.”

“I bet he knew it was you” Harry said. Riddle’s eyes flashed with increasing anger. 

“I knew it would be difficult to open the chamber again while I was in school so I decided to leave behind a diary, preserving my sixteen-year-old self in its pages, so that one day, with luck, I would be able to lead another in my footsteps, and finish Salazar Slytherin’s noble work” he growled. “But that doesn’t matter anymore, for months now all I’ve cared about is you”

“You want to kill me…” Harry stated. Draco pulled out his wand slowly.

“Yes” agreed Riddle “I knew what I had to do. It was clear to me that you were on the trail of Slytherin’s heir. From everything Neville had told me about you, I knew you would go to any lengths to solve the mystery — particularly if one of your best friends was attacked. That mudblood friend of yours worked it all out.  And Neville had told me the whole school was buzzing because you could speak Parseltongue... So, I made Neville write his own farewell on the wall and come down here to wait. He struggled and cried and became very boring. But there isn’t much life left in him. He was no match for me, the greatest sorcerer in the world." 

"Expelliarmus" Draco said sternly. 

Harry's wand flew out of Riddles hand to the corner of the room and clattered to the floor. 

Riddle looked pissed. 

"You wretched little Ravenclaw" he said.

Harry stood up looking angry before Riddle could say anymore. “You’re not the greatest sorcerer in the world,” said Harry, breathing fast. “Sorry to disappoint you but the greatest wizard in the world is Albus Dumbledore. Even when you were strong, you didn’t dare try and take over at Hogwarts. Dumbledore saw through you when you were at school and he still frightens you now, wherever you’re hiding these days” 

“Dumbledore’s been driven out of this castle by the mere memory of me!” he hissed. 

“Dumbledore is always there for people who need him” Draco said, even if the old sod fucked things up sometimes he was there for Harry at least. Right?

The sound of music played from the end of the chamber, they stopped and Riddle twirled in anger, looking for the source. Flames burst out from the nearest pillar and a large crimson bird fluttered down towards them. It was carrying a bundle between its talons which it dropped in Harry’s lap before landing on his shoulder.

It sat still and warm next to Harry’s cheek, gazing at Riddle. “That’s Dumbledore’s phoenix...” said Draco in surprise…

“Fawkes?” Harry breathed.

“The sorting hat” said Riddle, now eyeing the ragged thing that Fawkes had dropped, “this is what Dumbledore sends his defender! A songbird and an old hat! Do you feel brave, Harry Potter? Do you feel safe now?” 

"Harry, go get your wand" Draco whispered. 

Riddle was smiling broadly, even though Draco kept his wand pointed at him. 

Draco hated insane people, they were too damn scary. 

“Twice in your past, in my future we have met. And twice I failed to kill you. How did you survive?" Riddle demanded.

Draco tried to think he could hex the fuck out of Riddle-Voldemort, he wasn't armed anymore. But there was also a Basilisk around here somewhere and he really really wanted to run away before it got to that point. How do you kill a memory and stop a Basilisk? And Harry still didn’t even have a wand! Because he’s a twat.

“No one knows why you lost your powers when you attacked me,” said Harry abruptly. “I don’t know myself. But I know why you couldn’t kill me. Because my mother died to save me. My common Muggle-born mother,” he added, he seemed to be shaking with suppressed rage. “She stopped you killing me. And I’ve seen the real you, I saw you last year. You’re a wreck. You’re barely alive. That’s where all your power got you. You’re in hiding. You’re ugly and foul"

Riddle’s face contorted. Then he forced it into an awful smile. “So. Your mother died to save you. Yes, that’s a powerful counter-charm. I can see now . . . there is nothing special about you, after all. I wondered, you see. There are strange likenesses between us, after all. Even you must have noticed. Both half-bloods, orphans, raised by Muggles. Probably the only two Parselmouths to come to Hogwarts since the great Slytherin himself. We even look something alike . . . but after all, it was merely a lucky chance that saved you from me. That’s all I wanted to know.”

Riddle gave another twisted smile and walked over to the high pillars and looked up into the stone face of Slytherin, high above him in the half-darkness. Riddle opened his mouth wide and hissed.

' _Okay, no fucking Basilisks please,'_ Draco thought and shouted "Bombarda," his wand pointed at Riddle. 

Riddle slammed forward from the force of the spell but he continued to hiss loudly, getting up and shooting a fiery glance at them.

Okay, Voldemort was going to murder him later... Draco sighed, RIP. 

Harry’s pet snake slithered out of Harry’s sleeve and hissed loudly at them.

"The Basilisk is coming" Harry whispered.

They must all be speaking Parseltongue Draco thought. He cursed the fact that he couldn’t understand what they were saying but Harry was turning around to look up at the statue, Fawkes swaying on his shoulder. Slytherin’s gigantic stone face was moving.

"Fuck fuck. Fuck. Just, Why?" Draco muttered. The statues mouth opening, wider and wider, to make a huge black hole. 

"Can't you do something, a spell or?" Harry said. 

Draco huffed. "Can't think of any." 

Something was stirring inside the statue’s mouth. Something was slithering up from its depths. Harry ran over to his wand and picked it up hastily, Riddle turned to them slightly limping... at least that meant magic still worked on memories. 

“Don’t look at it” Draco said sharply, walking over to Harry. Fawkes’ took flight and Riddle was hissing again. 

“Can’t you say something in Parseltongue? Tell it to go away?” Draco asked. 

He could feel the basilisk moving towards them; he could hear its heavy body slithering across the dusty floor. He heard hissing, although he couldn’t tell who it was from. Damn all these snakes.

“...I don’t think it wants to listen” Harry replied.

There was a loud, explosive spitting sound right above him, and all he heard was angry hissing, something thrashing wildly off the pillars, he opened his eyes wide enough to squint at what was going on.

Fawkes was soaring around the giant serpent’s head, Salazar the little snake was in its claws and the basilisk was snapping furiously at them both with fangs long and thin as sabers, Fawkes dived. 

His long golden beak sank out of sight and the snake was dropped onto the Basilisk, a sudden shower of dark blood spattered the floor. The snake’s tail thrashed, narrowly missing Harry, who grabbed Draco’s arm and pulled him away again.

The snake turned and looked them straight in the face…  both its great, bulbous yellow eyes, had been punctured by Sal who was slithering around on the snake's head biting and hissing; blood was streaming to the floor, and the snake was spitting in agony.

“WOO GO SALAZAR” Harry shouted. 

Draco glared at him, the Slytherins were going to have a heart attack when they learned about Harry naming his pet after their founder.

“What?” said Harry and Draco's indignant look.

Then Riddle was screaming again. “LEAVE THE BIRD AND THAT STUPID SNAKE! THE BOY IS BEHIND YOU! YOU CAN STILL SMELL HIM! KILL HIM!” The blinded serpent swayed, confused. Sal the snake was picked up by Fawkes again and they flew off towards a pillar.

“Oh no” Draco heard Harry mutter.

“Come on this way” Draco said pulling them away, something soft swept up into his face… it was the sorting hat.

“Wait...” Harry said, and suddenly reached into the hat.

“What are you... ” Harry shoved his arm into the hat and pulled out a glittering sword.

_‘What the fuck is_ _this? The_ _s_ _word in the fucking stone?’_ Draco thought with annoyance.

“KILL THE BOY! LEAVE THE BIRD! THE BOY IS BEHIND YOU! SNIFF, SMELL HIM!” Riddle continued to shout.

Draco looked at Harry who had the audacity to grin at him.

“Don’t you fucking dare” Draco hissed.

Harry turned and walked back toward the Basilisk brandishing the sword. Fawkes and Salazar were swooping around the basilisk’s head and as it fell its body coiled around, hitting pillars as it twisted to face him. Draco could see the vast, bloody eye sockets, see the mouth stretching wide, wide enough to swallow him whole, lined with fangs glittering and venomous.

Draco looked around, was there nothing he could do, there weren’t any spells that could help against a Basilisk, they were immune to most magic, and Riddle was hiding behind it… he caught Sal as he fell from the Basilisk's head. The snake hissed at him in thanks.

He turned back to Harry as the Basilisk lunged blindly. Harry dodged and it hit the Chamber wall. It lunged again, and its forked tongue-lashed Harry’s side. 

Harry raised the sword in both his hands and Draco threw a spell at the sword, it was a spell that imbued an item with magic. All it did was increase the effectiveness of the object, and really he'd only used it on potions. But it might make the sword sharper or some shit? He and Severus had been working on the spell all year and it didn’t always work properly. But maybe it would help Harry, who obviously didn’t know how to fucking aim with a giant ass sword.

-don’t tell me a 12-year-old with a sword would be a good sword fighter without some magical help- 

The basilisk lunged again, and Harry threw his whole weight behind the sword and drove it to the hilt into the roof of the serpent’s mouth.

Draco winced as Harry cried out in pain.

Harry slid down the wall. gripped his arm. Draco ran over but he knew it was too late, Basilisk poison killed in less than a minute and there was no time to help now.

Great he'd killed the fucking saviour of the wizarding world. 

Fawkes flew down to Harry’s shoulder and Draco could hear Harry mutter “You were fantastic, Fawkes...”

“Stay with me Harry” Draco said moving Harry’s hand to look at the wound.

He winced at Riddle’s voice behind them, “you’re dead, Harry Potter, dead. Even Dumbledore’s bird knows it. Do you see what he’s doing, Potter? He’s crying.” Draco blinked… ‘ _Crying?…_ _. But Phoenix tears…_ ’ 

“So ends the famous Harry Potter,” said Riddle’s distant voice. “Not even your friends can help you now, defeated at last by the Dark Lord he so unwisely challenged--- 

Draco ignored what Riddle was saying, Fawkes was crying on Harry’s wound! Except now there was no wound.

Riddle seemed to realise this as well and rose his voice. “Get away from him. I said, get away,” Draco turned his head. 

Fawkes flew off making Riddle duck as the bird flew over his head.

In a rush of wings, Fawkes had soared back overhead and something fell into Draco’s lap, The Diary... Wait, the Diary...

“Phoenix tears...” Riddle muttered quietly, he looked furious. “Of course, healing powers... I forgot... But it makes no difference… you will both die here!” he said advancing on them. How does a dark lord forget something like that though...

The chamber slammed open with a crash. 

“WHAT THE DEVIL IS GOING ON HERE” Professor Snape shouted, swooping into the room. 

Draco stared at the Professor’s running into the room, then Riddle who was gaping furiously with his hands clenched. 

He gave a short laugh before seizing the basilisk fang on the floor next to him and plunging it straight into the heart of the book. Basilisk fangs killed a horcrux, right? Maybe he should look up more about horcruxes if he had to live through this shit again.

There was a long, dreadful, piercing scream. Ink spurted out of the diary in torrents, streaming over his hands and flooding the floor.

Riddle was writhing and twisting, screaming and flailing and then. He was gone. 

There was silence. Silence except for the steady drip drip of ink still oozing from the diary. The basilisk venom had burned a sizzling hole right through it.

Shaking all over, Draco stood and pulled Harry up. 

Professor McGonagall swept over to them, she looked furious but Harry wasn’t dying from Basilisk poison so Draco was thankful for that, even if he got expelled now it didn’t matter to him. 

Slowly, he gathered together his wand, Harry’s wand, the Sorting Hat, and with a tug the sword that Harry had left in the roof of the basilisk’s mouth. Salazar who had curled itself around his arm slithered into Harry’s sleeve.

“Good lord” McGonagall said looking at the basilisk and Harry’s blood covered clothes. Ron trailed sulkily behind them pulling Lockhart who was looking around the chamber with fascination.

“Professor McGonagall! What are you-? I mean... But? How?” Harry gaped.

"I was informed by the Weasleys that you and Draco had come down here" McGonagall said, she looked angry. 

Harry turned to Draco gaping.

Draco glared at him. “You think I came down here without telling people where we were going?” He had sent letters to both Ginny and the Weasley twins telling them everything, obviously at least some of the Weasley family were smart enough to tell a teacher. 

And at least by letting Ginny and the twins know then if they went missing they would know where to look and someone would defeat the creature even if they died due to their idiocy.

Then came a faint moan from the end of the Chamber. Neville was stirring. Harry suddenly perked back to life and ran towards him.

“Neville! You’re okay!” he shouted.

“Harry?” Neville gasped, “Draco! You’re both… but wait Riddle! Quick hide Riddle wants to kill you Harry” Neville cried out hysterically.

“It’s all right, Draco got rid of it” said Harry taking the diary from Draco and holding it up to show Neville the fang hole.

“I’m going to be expelled!” Neville wept as they helped him awkwardly to his feet. “What will my grandmother say?” he cried out suddenly.

Professor Snape, McGonagall and Flitwick had come down together and were walking around the chamber casting spells. Professor Flitwick was gushing about the number of protective enchantments on the place. 

Lockhart came over to them and stared creepily.“Hello” he said smiling.

“His memory’s gone,” said Ron shoving Lockhart in the chest. “The Memory Charm backfired. Hasn’t got a clue who he is, or where he is, or who we are. You should have seen Snape laughing when he found out, I didn’t think he even knew how to laugh.”

Lockhart peered good-naturedly up at them all. “Odd sort of place, this, isn’t it? Do you live here?”

“No,” said Ron, he looked pretty annoyed, he must have been dealing with Lockhart’s questions for a long time now.

“We will deal with that later” said Professor Snape who was looking at the Basilisk’s corpse as if it was Christmas. “First we will all go back to the Headmaster’s office and you four will explain yourselves” he said grabbing Neville by his robes and marching back towards the pipe.

   


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hmm, I dunno, let me know if you liked it, or disliked it, or if you think anything doesn't really work. I like how it ended up but I'm still not sure if it really works this way.
> 
> <3 Love you all. One chapter left now <3


	15. The End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I totally forgot to update lol

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ta daaaaaa last chapter.  
> Thanks for reading this long guys ^-^

**Chapter 15**  

When they got back to the Headmaster's office there were a whole bunch of people waiting for them. Percy, Fred, George and Ginny were there with Ron’s parents too, and an elderly woman with a pinched face, an ugly dress and even uglier hat came right up and pinched Neville by the cheek. 

“Neville, what do you think you are doing, running off to some Chamber to play hide and seek” she snapped.  

So, this was Neville’s grandmother... His mother had talked about her often, they were actually good friends but Draco had never actually met her. He could suddenly understand Neville’s fear. But he looked past that Professor Dumbledore was standing by the mantelpiece, beaming at them all. Fawkes went whooshing past his ear and settled on Dumbledore’s shoulder. 

“Mum, Dad! What are you doing here?” exclaimed Ron loudly.  

“After being told where you were by Mrs. Ginny Weasley I saw it fit to inform your parents of your actions” said Professor McGonagall.  

_‘Ah FUCK,_ ’ thought Draco, that meant McGonagall had told his parents too.  

Mrs. Weasley filled the silence by shrieking at Ron and threatening to pull him out of school for almost getting himself killed.  

“But Ron, Harry and Draco saved Neville mum!” Ginny shouted over her mother, the twins were sniggering to each other in the background and not being much help.  

“That’s right” said Dumbledore, beaming at them “now perhaps you can tell us the whole story”  

Harry spoke for nearly a quarter of an hour as everyone listening intently, Severus was behind them looking annoyed that he was present at all while Ginny gasped every 3 minutes. Harry told them about hearing the disembodied voice, how Hermione had finally realized that he was hearing a basilisk and Ron found out it was in the pipes. 

He then told them how he and Ron had followed the spiders into the forest, that Aragog had told them where the last victim of the Basilisk had died. 

Then how he had guessed that Moaning Myrtle had been the victim, and that the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets might be in her bathroom...  he seemed to be leaving out Draco’s involvement as much as possible but he wasn’t sure why… 

“Very well” said Professor McGonagall, “but if you knew all this then why didn’t you inform one of the teachers!” she snapped. 

“I did” said Draco 

McGonagall glared at him furiously so Draco continued.  

“Well they wanted to tell Professor Lockhart and I knew he would be utterly useless, so I just told Ginny, Fred and George in hopes they would reach you” Draco said.  

“Yes, I know about that but you still followed them into this!” she ranted. “Professor Lockhart is a dimwit! You would go to him over me!!” she rounded on Harry who looked fearful. “And you found out where the entrance was — breaking a hundred school rules into pieces along the way, I might add — but who was that man that burst into flames and how did you defeat the basilisk, Potter?”  

Harry told them about Fawkes’s timely arrival and about the Sorting Hat giving him the sword. But then he seemed to stop. Draco thought about it… Harry had so far avoided mentioning Riddle’s diary, although the teachers had stumbled in at the end, he also hadn’t mentioned Neville. Who was still getting scolded by his grandmother behind them. Draco didn’t want Neville to get expelled and the diary didn’t work anymore... Surely, they could prove it had been the diary all along, he could give them his memories if they needed.  

“What interests me most,” said Dumbledore gently, “is how Lord Voldemort managed to enchant Neville, when my sources tell me he is currently in hiding in the forests of Albania.  

“Draco said it was a hora-something” Harry said. 

The teachers and parents stared at him in shock. 

"Fack.” Draco muttered, facepalming. “I never said that” he snapped. ‘ _Oh shit._ ’ 

Dumbledore laughed heartily. “Well let's see then” he said. 

Harry pulled out the diary and showed it to Dumbledore. “Riddle wrote it when he was sixteen...” Dumbledore took the diary from Harry and peered keenly down his long, crooked nose at its burnt and soggy pages.  

“Brilliant,” he said softly. “Of course, he was probably the most brilliant student Hogwarts has ever seen.” He turned around to Neville grandmother who looked as though she wasn’t about to take any shit from anybody.  

“Very few people know that Lord Voldemort was once called Tom Riddle. I taught him myself, fifty years ago, at Hogwarts. He disappeared after leaving the school . . . traveled far and wide . . . sank so deeply into the Dark Arts, consorted with the very worst of our kind, underwent so many dangerous, magical transformations, that when he resurfaced as Lord Voldemort, he was barely recognizable. Hardly anyone connected Lord Voldemort with the clever, handsome boy who was once Head Boy here.”  

“But, what has Neville got to do with this. I never gave him a diary,” she huffed.  

“It was Lucius Malfoy!” Harry snapped. Draco winced… but he couldn’t deny it.  

“Oh” said Dumbledore, “and why do you suspect that?” he asked.  

“I saw him sneak it into Neville’s pile of books before school started” Harry said, “I think all of this is his fault!” Draco opened his mouth to say something, possibly in denial but… he closed his mouth again before he could. 

“Well we will sort out all of that tricky business later. For now, Mr. Longbottom should go up to the hospital wing right away,” Dumbledore interrupted in a firm voice. “This has been a terrible ordeal for him. There will be no punishment. Older and wiser wizards than he have been hoodwinked by Lord Voldemort.” He strode over to the door and opened it.  

“Bed rest and perhaps a large, steaming mug of hot chocolate. I always find that cheers me up,” he added, twinkling kindly down at him. He turned to the Weasley family, “you are of course welcome to stay, but I’m afraid I have to borrow your son for a moment” he said. The Weasleys took the hint and let themselves be ushered out of the room. “Perhaps you could also visit the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey has been giving out Mandrake juice. I daresay the basilisk’s victims will be waking up any moment.” said Dumbledore 

“Then, Hermione’s okay!” said Ron brightly.  

“There has been no lasting harm done” said Dumbledore. Leading the Weasleys, Neville and his Grandmother out. 

“You know, Minerva,” Professor Dumbledore said thoughtfully to Professor McGonagall, “I think all this merits a good feast. Might I ask you to go and alert the kitchens?”  

“Right,” said Professor McGonagall crisply, also moving to the door. “I’ll leave you to deal with these three, shall I?”  

“Certainly,” said Dumbledore. She left, and Draco gazed uncertainly at Dumbledore.  

“I seem to remember telling you both that I would have to expel you if you broke any more school rules,” said Dumbledore to Harry and Ron.  

Ron gaped in horror.  

“Which goes to show that the best of us must sometimes eat our words,” Dumbledore went on, smiling.  

“You will all receive Special Awards for Services to the School and — let me see — yes, I think two hundred points apiece for Gryffindor and Ravenclaw.” 

“Although I do wonder why one of us seems to be keeping so quiet about his part in this dangerous adventure,” Dumbledore added. “Why so modest, Gilderoy?”  

When Dumbledore addressed him, Lockhart looked around to see who he was talking to.  

“Professor Dumbledore,” Ron said quickly, “there was an accident down in the Chamber of Secrets. Professor Lockhart tried to do a Memory Charm and the wand backfired,” Ron explained quietly to Dumbledore, “a bunch of rocks fell on him too. Professor Snape said not to worry...”  

“Dear me,” said Dumbledore, shaking his head, his long silver mustache quivering. “Impaled upon your own sword, Gilderoy!”  

“Sword?” said Lockhart dimly. “Haven’t got a sword. That boy has, though.” He pointed at Harry. “He’ll lend you one.”  

“Would you mind taking Professor Lockhart up to the infirmary, too?” Dumbledore said to Ron. “and do inform Mrs. Weasley that there is no need to pull you from school, I’d like a few more words with Harry and Draco...” 

Dumbledore crossed to one of the chairs by the fire as Ron left the room nervously.  

“First of all, Harry, I want to thank you,” said Dumbledore, eyes twinkling again. “You must have shown me real loyalty down in the Chamber. Nothing but that could have called Fawkes to you.” He stroked the phoenix, which had fluttered down onto his knee.  

“...I think that might have been Draco” said Harry.  

Draco glared at him, “No! It was definitely you” he stated, ignoring Dumbledore’s amused eyes on him. 

“And so, you met Tom Riddle,” said Dumbledore thoughtfully. “I imagine he was most interested in you...” 

“Professor Dumbledore... Riddle said I’m like him. Strange likenesses, he said,” Harry said. 

“Did he, now?” said Dumbledore, looking thoughtfully at Harry from under his thick silver eyebrows. “And what do you think, Harry?”  

“I don’t think I’m like him!” said Harry said loudly. “I mean, I’m, well I’m in Gryffindor, I’m ... The Sorting Hat told me I’d have done well in Slytherin, and even though, maybe that would have been fine…” he glanced at Draco “I still wouldn't be like him! But everyone thought I was Slytherin’s heir because I can speak Parseltongue...”  

“You can speak Parseltongue, Harry,” said Dumbledore calmly, “because Lord Voldemort — who is the last remaining descendant of Salazar Slytherin — can speak Parseltongue. Unless I’m much mistaken, he transferred some of his own powers to you the night he gave you that scar. Not something he intended to do, I’m sure.”  

He gave Draco a twinkling look… ‘ _shit I've revealed too much too Harry’_ , he thought. 

“But…” mumbled Harry “The Sorting Hat could see Slytherin’s power in me, and it —”  

“Put you in Gryffindor,” said Dumbledore calmly. “Listen to me, Harry. You happen to have many qualities Salazar Slytherin prized in his hand-picked students. His own very rare gift, Parseltongue — resourcefulness — determination — a certain disregard for rules,” he added. “Yet the Sorting Hat placed you in Gryffindor. You know why that was. Think.”  

“It only put me in Gryffindor,” said Harry in a defeated voice, “because I asked not to go in Slytherin...”  

“Exactly,” said Dumbledore, beaming once more and glancing at Draco too as he spoke. “Which makes you very different from Tom Riddle. Everyone has qualities from all of the houses, it is our choices, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”  

_‘Well you should tell that to the hat that_ _‘cause_ _I was put in_ _Ravenclaw_ _against my will_ ’ Draco thought with a huff… then again it was certainly better for him than Slytherin this time around... 

“And if you want proof, Harry, that you belong in Gryffindor, I suggest you look more closely at this.” said Dumbledore, handing Harry the sword he used to kill the Basilisk. 

Draco knew already, that it was the sword of Godric Gryffindor, but what it was doing inside the sorting hat was another question. Maybe Dumbledore had seen one too many Disney movies. 

“Only a true Gryffindor could have pulled that out of the hat, Harry,” said Dumbledore simply.  

Suddenly, the door burst open so violently that it bounced back off the wall. Lucius Malfoy stood there, fury in his face. And cowering behind his legs, heavily wrapped in bandages, was Dobby.  

Draco froze.  

“Good evening, Lucius,” said Dumbledore pleasantly.  

Lucius gave Draco a cold glance “I’ll deal with you later” he hissed, Draco stared at the floor, he could feel tears prickling his eyes left over from the last fight they had at Christmas.  

“So!” Lucius said “You’ve come back. The governors suspended you, but you still saw fit to return to Hogwarts.”  

“Well, you see, Lucius,” said Dumbledore, smiling serenely, “I got quite the hailstorm of owls today from the other eleven governors. You see they’d heard that Mr. Neville Longbottom had been killed and wanted me back here at once. They seemed to think I was the best man for the job after all. Very strange tales they told me, too... Several of them seemed to think that you had threatened to curse their families if they didn’t agree to suspend me in the first place, and it took an owl from your wife to placate them enough to allow me to return.”  

His father went even paler than usual, but his eyes were still slits of fury. Draco just hoped he wouldn’t take out his anger on mother. Then again, if he did, he might not live through mother’s own fury. 

“So, have you stopped the attacks yet?” he sneered. “You have caught the culprit? Who is it?”  

“The same person as last time, Lucius,” said Dumbledore. “But this time, Lord Voldemort was acting through somebody else. By means of this diary.” He held up the small black book with the large hole through the center.  

Draco glanced over at Dobby. The elf was doing something very odd. His eyes fixed meaningfully on Harry who was glaring daggers at his father, Dobby kept pointing at the diary, then at his father, and then hitting himself hard on the head with his fist.  

“I see...” said Lucius slowly to Dumbledore.  

“A clever plan,” said Dumbledore in a level voice, still staring his father straight in the eye. “Because if Harry here” — Lucius shot Harry a swift, sharp look — “and his friend Ron hadn’t discovered this book, why — Mr. Longbottom might have taken all the blame. No one would ever have been able to prove he hadn’t acted of his own free will...” Mr. Malfoy said nothing. His face was suddenly masklike.  

“It is very fortunate the diary was discovered, and Riddle’s memories wiped from it. Who knows what the consequences might have been otherwise... after all he is a VERY Good Friend of your son and I believe Draco has been greatly affected by this year” Dumbledore continued.  

“Very fortunate,” Lucius said stiffly. And still, behind his back, Dobby was pointing, first to the diary, then to Lucius, then punching himself in the head.  

Harry spoke up suddenly, “Don’t you want to know how Neville got hold of that diary, Mr. Malfoy?”   

Lucius rounded on him. “How should I know how the stupid little boy got hold of it?” he said.  

“Because you gave it to him,” said Harry. “In Flourish and Blotts. You slipped it on top of his pile of books, didn’t you?”  

He saw Mr. Malfoy’s white hands clench and unclench. “Prove it,” he hissed.  

“Well I suppose we don’t have real proof of that,” said Dumbledore, smiling at Draco who still hadn’t said anything. “Not now that Riddle has vanished from the book. On the other hand, I would advise you, Lucius, not to go giving out any more of Lord Voldemort’s old school things.” 

Lucius Malfoy stood for a moment, and Draco distinctly saw his right-hand twitch as though he was longing to reach for his wand, but he wasn't stupid enough to attack them. Instead, he turned to leave.  

“We’re going, Dobby!” He said wrenching open the door and kicking the elf through it. “Draco. I will see you… later” he hissed before closing the door. They could hear Dobby squealing with pain all the way along the corridor. 

“Professor Dumbledore,” Harry said hurriedly. “Can I give that diary back to Mr. Malfoy, please?”  

“Certainly, Harry,” said Dumbledore calmly. “But hurry. The feast, remember...” 

Draco stayed sitting in the chair… he was sooooo fucking dead when he went home this summer… at least he could enjoy the feast before his life ended. he sighed… this year was a disaster...  

“I’m proud of you” Dumbledore said through his bubble of thoughts. 

“Huh?” Draco said looking up. 

“You protected your friends and although there were some minor slip ups I don’t believe you have destroyed the future as you seem so fearful of doing” he said beaming. 

Draco fidgeted. “This shouldn’t have happened… I guess I’m really to blame for all this” he sighed. 

“Oh? And what makes you think that?” asked Dumbledore 

“I knew the Chamber would open this year, I really should have said something… and I literally handed Neville that diary by accident. I’m to blame…” he sighed. 

“If placing the blame is your aim, then why not give me the blame?” said Dumbledore with a twinkle in his eyes. 

Draco looked at him confused.  

“After all, you saved the lives of many students this year” Dumbledore continued. 

“That’s not… I mean the reason Neville was taken by the diary was because he was too dependent on it. I couldn’t save him at all. In fact, I should have been a better friend to him. He didn’t need to pour his hopes and dreams into a book I would have listened.” he said quietly. 

Dumbledore was beaming. Draco sent him his best glare. “If I’m murdered by my father over the summer tell Harry it wasn’t his fault” he huffed. 

“Now now, there is no need for that” Dumbledore beamed. “Although it’s true there is no real evidence I believe with the story going around as it is, your father may have a little trouble with authorities this summer and will be much too busy to make an attempt on your life. I received quite an owl from your mother actually, I won’t tell you the details of it now as she seems to be well in control of things, but I am sure you will be in for quite a surprise next year” he said. 

Draco sighed again, “Well I guess... it could have turned out worse...” 

But Mother plotting was never a good sign.  

- 

The end of year feast was admittedly a lot of fun. 

Once again, seating arrangements seemed to have been forgotten as he was sat around several Ravenclaws, Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs. Even Theo and one Slytherin from first year had joined them and was talking to Jack, despite the horrified glares from the other Slytherins.  

They were all in their pyjamas and he spent most of the time talking to Luna who was the first to be un-petrified. A big mangy dog was in her arms, her dad had visited to see her unpetrified and apparently this was the puppy she’d got for Christmas… figures.  

Apparently while she was petrified she had been in a long conversation with a sphinx inside her head who told her all about cursed Egyptian objects and their uses… Draco knew a thing or two about cursed Egyptian objects and quite enjoyed her perspective of their uses… although how she found out about legitimate Egyptian artifacts from a sphinx in her own head was quite beyond him. 

Once again everyone else at the table gave them odd looks throughout their conversation.  

At some point Hermione ran towards Draco screaming “You solved it! You solved it!” and glomping him into her mass of hair. She then stepped back and stared at him. “Oh My God I missed your birthday!” she screeched as if it were a tragedy.  

Draco watched the Ravenclaws around him spin around to stare and he hissed at her to shut up, he refused to tell anyone in Ravenclaw when his birthday was despite their begging, he didn't need presents from them anyway he was far too old.  

He could also see Harry bristle and knew he hadn’t known that earlier… damnit why did he ever tell Hermione his birthday date in the first place.  

Hagrid turned up at half past three, cuffing Harry and Ron so hard on the shoulders that they face planted into their plates of trifle, which was hilarious. 

Once again Gryffindor house was number one for the house cup and Professor McGonagall stood up to tell them all that the exams had been canceled as a school treat.  

Draco swore darkly, he'd actually fucking studied this time too, and Hermione looked extremely upset.  

Dumbledore finally announced that, unfortunately, Professor Lockhart would be unable to return next year, owing to the fact that he needed to go away and get his memory back.  

Everyone cheered. Except for some very angry fangirls. 

The year ended quite uneventfully after that, Harry kept trying to give him sweets to make up for missing his birthday and Hermione kept trying to give him books.  

- 

“We should meet up in the summer this year” said Hermione as they walked towards the train station.  

“If I can get out of my aunt and uncle's house then maybe” replied Harry sadly.  

“If I’m not murdered by my father” said Draco darkly.  

“Yeah, and maybe if I don’t get grounded all summer for breaking my wand and stealing the car at the start of the year then going off to fight a basilisk” muttered Ron.  

Hermione smiled sheepishly, she was the only one not distraught about going home for the summer.  

“You really do need to get a new wand though” Draco said. 

“I can’t it’s too expensive” Ron said. “Besides this wand isn’t even mine it’s Charlie’s old wand” he said. 

“Really… and it works for you?” Draco said surprised. 

Perhaps Ron and his brother's wands used the same magical core. 

From the book he had read last year he had found that a wand with a unicorn hair core was not suited for dark spells. He had found that quite hilarious.  

He had been terrible at dark spells when he had used them decades ago but then he had never truly wanted to cast them unless Voldemort was threatening his or his mother’s life. 

“You really need to get your own wand, I can pay for you” Draco said. He was technically rich after all… it was actually still a foreign concept for him. 

Ron looked star-struck but didn’t reply to him he just walked off muttering about how his sellotaped wand had saved them from Lockhart so they should be more thankful. 

They got a compartment together, Draco wanted to hang out with them for as long as possible. He wasn’t looking forward to the summer.  

You would think facing his father wouldn’t be scarier than facing a Basilisk but.  

You would be wrong.  

   
 -

The End. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I have NO IDEA when I will post again after this, I want to go back and tidy up some chapters from this story and the previous one and then I need to properly write third year and make it fkin good. so, it will be a while :3 I am going to aim for next summer to start posting properly but we shall see if that works out since I have University and everything. 
> 
> <3 MUCH LOVE TO ALL <3 
> 
> -Also I might post some other Harry Potter stories in the meantime if I get them finished, I write a lot I just don't post things :/ :/ :/ :/

**Author's Note:**

> If you notice mistakes feel free to comment and I will edit them. Including if I get Harry Potter facts wrong because I do that sometimes.
> 
> My Tumblr: https://ihealrages.tumblr.com/


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